Page 126 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

IRONY

what is being said or done has been said and done before. Eco gives us a nice
example when he points to the lover who offers his partner red roses and the
statement ‘as Barbara Cartland would say, I love you.’ Thus, the necessary romantic
gesture is made but with recognition that red roses and I love you has been said and 103
done before. This is the doubleness of a self-undermining statement by which the
already known is spoken in inverted commas.
Increased cultural reflexivity is the social force that has encouraged the growing
use of irony in culture. For example, a widespread awareness of the history of film,
television, music and literature promotes this feeling. Thus, television has a history
and repeats it within and across channels to produce the conditions of an ironic
knowingness. For example, The Simpsons has made a ‘dysfunctional’ American
family the ironic heroes of a series that is both entertainment and a subtle reflection
on American cultural life. In accordance with contemporary culture, not only is the
television set at the heart of The Simpsons’ life and that of its audience but we are
required to have a self-conscious awareness of other television and film genres as it
makes a range of intertextual references. For example, Itchy and Scratchy, The
Simpsons’ children’s favourite cartoon, parodies Tom and Jerry mocking the double
standard by which television violence is simultaneously condemned and enjoyed.
Links Epistemology, foundationalism, intertextuality, postmodernism, pragmatism, truth