Irony's Edge

Instead, she suggests that irony is a “...semantically complex process of relating, differentiating, and combining said and unsaid meanings - and doing so with an evaluative edge” (p. 89).

She argues this process of differentiation and relation involves a rapid oscillation between two different meanings; denotation and connotation cannot be seen simultaneously but are also inextricable from each other.

By way of example, she discusses visiting an art show in Germany where she missed the artist’s ironic intents.

After several years of living in Germany, she revisited the exhibit and got much more out of it because of her insider knowledge of contemporary German culture.

She also suggests that lack of shared context, combined with the evaluative "edge" of can create situations where irony misfires.