Verbal Irony in the Short Fiction of Charles Nodier: A Computer-Assisted Study (France)

This dissertation examines the effects of verbal irony, from the point of view of reader-response and cognitive theory, on the interpretation of a literary text. The analytical techniques developed are then applied to the short stories of Charles Nodier. A careful comparison of significant recent studies of the classification and analysis of irony, both literary and non-literary, from a variety of critical perspectives, serves as the basis for the elaboration of a system of classification schemes involving linguistic and contextual indicators, actantial distribution, and rhetorical strategy. The influence of these elements on the interpretation of ironic enunciations by the reader can then be evaluated in terms of the cognitive processes involved in the integration of the perceived text into the reader's contextual framework. Interpretation of irony depends on the recognition of an incongruity between the apparent meaning of an enunciation and the expectations generated by the receiver's model of the speaker. This emphasis on the importance of cognitive model building related to actantial roles facilitates the description of that irony which is intended by an enunciator using the words of a character or narrator who is not self-conscious.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

French

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Ponterio, Robert

• Literature, Romance

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8711853

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71040