3.2 Irony in Synchronic Spatial Juxtaposition.......................39
Summary....................................41
Chapter Four Irony in Authorial Narrative Voice...........................43
4.1 Romantic Irony.............................43
4.2 Postmodern Irony.............................47
Summary...........................................49
Chapter Five Conclusion.............................51
CHAPTER FOUR IRONY IN AUTHORIAL NARRATIVEVOICE
4.1 Romantic Irony
Romantic irony is an irony applied by a fully conscious artist,whose art is an ironicpresentation of the ironic position in which he finds himself.To write well,the artist needsto be creative and critical,subjective and objective,passionate and realistic,sensual andrational,inspired and self-conscious.His work is intended to describe the world,yet it isfictional.He feels obliged to give a true or perfect description of reality but knows thatthis is difficult because reality is incomprehensible,full of contradictions.And it is so vastand still evolving that even a truthful description can immediately become false and untrueonce it is taken off the page.The true artist then chooses to stand outside his work andpresents this awareness of his ironic position in his work(Muecke 29).Wilde rarelyreveals his attitude in his short stories,and his frequently used technique of“show,don’ttell”gives readers great scope for interpretation in his works.The implied author does notdisappear from the work altogether,but is present between the lines,revealing hispresence from time to time,rendering the work complex and evocative in its meaning.Wilde’s consciousness of romantic irony is mainly reflected in the author’s invasion of thestory world,the transgression of the boundaries of the fiction-the“authorial intrusion”.This section will concentrate on analyzing the phenomena of authorial intrusion in Wilde’sshort stories and explain how they demonstrate Wilde’s consciousness of romantic irony.
CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION
Wilde is a master of irony.Irony,as a means of confronting the stereotypes of histime and remaining true to himself,is both his attitude to life and principle of writing.AsArthur Symons stated,“Mr.Wilde,with a most reasonable hatred of the bourgeoisseriousness of dull people,has always taken refuge from the commonplace in irony”(Beckson 103).Irony permeates all aspects of Wilde’s work,including the narrative level.Irony is one of the key features of the narrative strategies employed in his short stories.Most of the existing studies focus on irony at the linguistic level,with few on the irony atthe narrative level,and there is a lack of systematic research.Therefore,this study seeks toanalyze in depth the specific ironic narrative strategies and their effects in Wilde’s shortstories,and explore the author’s narrative appeals behind them.Within the framework offormal and thematic studies,this thesis examines three characteristic narrative strategies inWilde’s short stories-covert progression,spatial narrative,and authorial narrative voice-to reveal how they reflect the themes of Victorian moral deficiency,class contradictions,the gap between rich and poor,colonial issues and fate.In this way,this thesis presents amore comprehensive picture of the narrative aesthetics of Wilde’s short stories andconveys his complex and profound insight into the totality of events and phenomena aswell as his subtle attitudes.
Covert progressions exist in many of Wilde’s short stories,all complementary to theplot development.They can be divided into two main categories:those that revolve aroundthe irony of the blindness and foolishness of the protagonist,and those that concentrate onthe irony of adults controlling and alienating children,exposing Wilde’s criticism andirony against the stereotypical,hypocritical,and harmful morality of the Victorian era.Theuncovering of covert progression relies on the analyses of narratives’stylistic andstructural techniques to reveal the intricate relationship be
