Irony: Language and Failure

A study in the trope of irony and the ways in which it complicates the possibility of understanding. Focus on Socratic irony, the dialogue, and Romantic irony. We will also consider the epistemological implications of irony and the role it plays in contemporary criticism. Readings from Plato, Quintillian, Diderot, Hegel, Schlegel, Kierkegaard, Baudelaire, Lukács, Booth, De Man, Rorty and Derrida.