Connecting irony and humor with witticism and lightheartedness

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Irony and humor have long been studied as two closely related phenomena by numerous researchers. Some, including Hänninen (1989) and Dews et al. (1995), have argued that humor derives from irony, while others, including Hay (2001), have regarded irony as a variety of humor. Recently, Hirsch (2008; 2011a, b) proposes a comparative model that differentiates irony from humor in the literary texts by means of some cues for irony and humor. Reyes et al. (2012) also propose a set of features that represent humor and irony. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to reexamine the relationship between irony and humor, and to provide an answer to the long-lasting question of why these two phenomena appear to be closely related. In order to answer this question, the works of an anonymous feminist artist group, the Guerrilla Girls, from 1985 to 2013, which are effectively utilizing both irony and humor, will be analyzed. It will be observed that uncommon wordings and phrasings in a witty and clever way involved in the irony examples induce humor, and that the situation where any seriousness or intensity is relieved works as a precondition for generating humor from the irony examples. Based on these observations, it will be proposed that the 'witticism' involved in most irony examples derives humor, and that the so-called 'lightheartedness' also plays a role in generating humor. It will further be proposed that GG's works clearly show that 'witticism' and ' lightheartedness' are two essential components of most effective ironic utterances. (Ewha Womans University)

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Theories of irony and humor
• 3. Data analysis
• 4. Witticism and lightheartedness
• 5. Conclusion
• References