IRONY AS DISCURSIVE CERTAINLY / UNCERTAINLY

Abstract

This article launches some considerations about irony like a linguistic resource full of uncertainty and an instrument for excellence to express author’s critical attitude about some political, social and moral phenomenon in a way that is vague and veiled. The theorical aspect explained in the introduction are illustrated with fragments of the literary works of Honoré de Balzac, Théophile Gautier, Claude Roy, Camilo José Cela, Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Mia Couto.

The personal contribution of the authors consists in examine the irony like universal linguistic category that is immanent for the different languages (the article analyses Spanish, French and Portuguese), for the different styles of language (fiction, mass media) and for the different literary schools (romantism, realism, modernism, postmodernism).