Intertextual Irony: Between Relevance Theory and Umberto Eco

This article discusses the advantages deriving from the interaction of pragmatics and literary theory in the study of literary irony. The first section argues that the current (mis)understanding of irony is the result of a centuries-long intertwinement between rhetorical and philosophical discourses. The paper then shows how the echoic theory of irony, devised by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson within the broader framework of their Relevance Theory, provides literary scholars with a different and potentially useful notion of irony and its functions. The third section compares echoic irony to Umberto Eco’s definition of irony. Intertextual irony is then defined, and identified as a fourth type of irony, in addition to verbal, situational or dramatic ironies. Literary examples and implications of intertextual irony are also analysed. In the fourth and final section expressions of a diffuse sense of rejection of irony in contemporary culture are briefly discussed. By applying an innovative methodology to the study of figurative language, this article aims to introduce the concept of intertextual irony as a reader-oriented tool for literary analysis, as well as to emphasize the role that pragmatics can play in the refinement of the vocabulary of literary criticism and theory.