The Research Of Characteristic Of Irony In The Western Traditional Aesthetics

Irony is a key word in the theories of western literature, aesthetics and philosophy. It is socomplicated that the author would not classify it into one certain field or simply regard it as one concept ora figure of speech. Irony indeed came into English as a figure of speech. However, after being developedby Sren Kierkegaard, a Danish existentialist philosopher, irony began to take a backseat as a rhetoricaldevice. Socrates viewed it as an aesthetic theory and philosophical image firstly as a leader, then a pursuerand finally a pusher. At that time, irony went into its most significant developing stage, since it paidattention to human’s existence and embodied the arousal of individuals. After that, in order to resume theobjectiveness, irony was readopted in texts as a figure of speech by the new criticism school. Ironydeveloped into parody in postmodernism, becoming one pillar theory in deconstructionism. By focusing onthe traditional irony that is the irony of Socrates, romantic school and Kierkegaard, which is of subjectity,this thesis analyzes the four characteristics of irony, and thus unveils a mystical aspect of irony.The four theoretical characteristics of irony are: the betweenness of irony, the reflexivity of irony, thesubjectivity of irony and the transcendence of irony. These characteristics depend on each other and goforward one by one. The first is the betweenness of irony, as a way of linguistic interpretation; irony seemsintangible but not unperceivable in essence. Irony, in fact, is an occurrence of image which covered withmasks seen from multi-perspectives. From the absence and ambiguity of the paradox to the distinctivereproduction of it, the person using irony tries to have a real knowledge of himself through his multi-viewson others. Confronting beliefs and ethics, man needs to admit the finity of himself humbly in front of theimmortal, with a far-sighted observance of his existence. However, with finity of the self, he has to dealwith the innate separation for the apparent contradiction against the infinity he has longed for. When oneself starts to look at the other, irony will serve as the betweenness for communication. the betweenness ofirony not only helps man to have a clear knowledge of the contrast between phenomenon and essence,inherent part and external part, but also makes it possible for him to wander about between aesthetics andethics, philosophy and beliefs, consciousness and unconsciousness, rationality and reality and for him toreflect life in the thoughts about beliefs and ethics, sensibility and rationality. Irony shoulders theresponsibility of communicating the reality (what is) and appearance (what seems to be). Next is the reflexivity of irony. In Socrates’ view: by reflecting the shackles God granted to men, ironyis expected to help make decisions through brainwave instead of oracle. By rethinking human’s alienationresulted from industrial civilization, Friedrich Don Schlegel hopes to arouse people’s subjectivity andresume their emotions through irony. After reflecting the restrictions of life, Sren Kierkegaard, anexistentialist wishes to make people have a deep understanding of men’s existence. In general, irony is theexplosion of the bound spirits, which awaken people’s consciousness and stimulate their passions. Byreflecting divinity and rationality, this chapter aims to break up the superficial tranquility and stir up abrainstorm. Irony is not is not a direct representation of the nature of things, but takes them into shape byindirect and reflection. Standing between intellectuality and rationality, irony, after shifting fromintellective mode of thinking to speculative mode of thinking, goes through will, desire, knowledge to trulyrealize the reviving of value rationality. Based on its betweenness, the reflectivity of irony reflects human’sexistence after the reflection of divinity, rationality, poetic features and the reality.The subjectivity is the most important characteristic of irony. Irony gains independence throughreflection, and thus obtains the subjectivity. Irony works in a means of dialogue or subjectively, withsubjects pursuing common sense. For the common sense itself, both sides are likely to compromise orrecombine or even turn to the opposite side. That is the way how a new individual or self produces. Irony,with poetic life as its highest ideal, breaks the superficial harmony and then enters the emotional flow. Itends at reaching the poetic, mysterious and aesthetic self by emotion adjustment and soul liberation. Irony,like a key to open the mysterious door of human heart, helps him to enter the inner part of it.The last characteristic is the transcendence of irony. It refers to irony, which, confronting the emptyand absurd and in opposite to common sense, has always been in its way of pursuing truth. Theforthcoming of transcendence of man is in fact the representation of sense. Transcendence can be said to begoing beyond rather than going outward,which means there is no the so-called ending, instead, it hasalways in the position of persistent pursuing. When the sense of beauty lures man to be an outsider, love, inits intention to pursue beauty,seems to work in an ever-operating process. Beauty tries to transcend it selfby havoc and the dissolving of it, which transforms the world in to another look. Irony is the link betweenlove and beauty. Beauty acts on love through imagination that brings to finity infinity and thus becomes thebridge between them. Since the gap between finity and infinity is hardly likely to fill in by anything but the ironic poetic flavor, it thus helps man realize the transcendence of his existence.