Irony,

The concept of "irony" is closely related to "paradox". In fact, there is no substantial difference between the two in Brooks. Throughout New Criticism, the term "irony" is used more frequently. The main expounder of the "irony" theory of New Criticism is Brooks. In his words: "The obvious distortion of a declarative statement by the context is called irony." (Zhao Yiheng, 1988: 335) Obviously, this is a very broad definition. The purpose of the concept of "irony" is still to reveal the complex changes in semantics in literary texts. According to the concept of "multiple meanings" in New Criticism, the basic characteristics of literary texts are semantic ambiguity and multiple semantics. The linguistic phenomenon of "irony" fits exactly this literary definition. For this reason, "irony" has become one of the most commonly used concepts in New Criticism.

From a semantic point of view, "irony" originally refers to a linguistic phenomenon of "telling the truth in reverse" or "what is said is not what it means". In irony, the meaning of a symbol is different or even diametrically opposed to its literal meaning. According to the concept of linguistics, any symbol exists in a certain context, and the meaning of the symbol will change depending on the context. The same principle applies to "irony". In the phenomenon of "irony", linguistic symbols are cleverly used in a specific context, so that a symbol no longer expresses its original meaning, but expresses another completely opposite meaning. In this way, an "irony" is created. From the perspective of the construction of semiotic signifiers and signifieds, "irony" is actually a situation of rupture between semiotic signifiers and signifieds. Language is a conventional symbol system. The relationship between the signifier and the signified is unchangeable and unchangeable. However, the emergence of "irony" makes the signifier of a symbol no longer point to its conventional fixed referent, but to another signifier. The use of language in scientific texts is completely consistent with the agreed rules and coding principles of language, and resolutely avoids the break between the signifier and the signified. Literary texts deliberately use various techniques to violate the agreed rules of language, thus making literary texts into semantically ambiguous and complex symbol systems. It is not difficult to see that the essence of "irony" is still the deformation and complexity of semantics. From the perspective of New Criticism, "irony" is one of the important manifestations of literary characteristics and one of the important means of forming literary characteristics.

In the history of Western literary criticism, "irony" has always been considered an accidental language technique, or at most a figure of speech. New Criticism elevates "irony" to the level of a literary characteristic and regards it as a typical phenomenon of semantic change, thus making it the fundamental attribute of literary texts. In their history of criticism, Wimsatt and Brooks insisted on renaming New Criticism "ironic poetics". Regarding "irony", they clearly pointed out: "We can regard 'irony' as a cognitive principle. The principle of 'irony' extends to the principle of contradiction, and then expands into a universal principle of language image and language image structure - this This is the tension that must exist when words are used in a novel and dynamic way." (Wemsett et al., 1988: 692) Since "irony" is a semantic change, especially the contradictory state between literal meaning and true meaning, its semantic structure will definitely manifest itself in a variety of different forms. In the book "New Criticism", Mr. Zhao Yiheng once divided "irony" into "restrained narrative", "exaggerated narrative", "truthful irony", "interrogative irony", "reflective irony" and "paradox irony". ", "romantic irony" and "macro-irony" in terms of character themes and language style. Regardless of the type of "irony", it exhibits the characteristics of semantic superposition and semantic multiplexing. It greatly increases the semantic level of the text and effectively strengthens the perceptibility of the language.