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Post-irony

State in which earnest and ironic intents become muddled

State in which earnest and ironic intents become muddled

Post-irony is a term used to denote a state in which earnest and ironic intents become muddled, or alternatively to describe a return from irony to earnestness, similar to new sincerity.

In literature, David Foster Wallace is often described as the founder of a "postironic" literature. His essays "E Unibus Pluram" and "Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young" describe and hope for a literature that goes beyond postmodern irony. Other authors often described as postironic are Dave Eggers, Tao Lin, and Alex Shakar.

Overview

Whereas in postmodern irony, something is meant to be cynically mocked and not taken seriously, and in new sincerity, something is meant to be taken seriously or "unironically", post-irony combines these two elements by either having something absurd taken seriously or be unclear as to whether something is meant to be ironic.

One example given is the film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans:

The film contains what a *Snakes on a Plane*-style irony-fest should: hokey plot, bad acting, and deliciously over-the-top glorification of sex and drug use. But the film does much more than revel in its genre's [[Camp (style)

Criticism

In 2003, Zoe Williams described the increasing popularity of the term with disapproval:

...there are a number of misconceptions about irony that are peculiar to recent times....the eighth is that "post-ironic" is an acceptable term – it is very modish to use this, as if to suggest one of three things: i) that irony has ended; ii) that postmodernism and irony are interchangeable, and can be conflated into one handy word; or iii) that we are more ironic than we used to be, and therefore need to add a prefix suggesting even greater ironic distance than irony on its own can supply. None of these things is true.

References

References

  1. [https://www.vice.com/da/article/the-past-explains-our-present-wave-of-post-irony/ Post-Irony Is the Only Thing Left in the World That Gets a Reaction - Vice]
  2. Wallace, David Foster. "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", ''[[Review of Contemporary Fiction]]'' 13(2), Summer 1993, pp. 151-194.
  3. Jensen, Mikkel. 2014. "A Note on a Title: '' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''" in ''[[The Explicator]]'', 72:2, 146–150. [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00144940.2014.905434]
  4. [https://www.salon.com/2014/04/13/david_foster_wallace_was_right_irony_is_ruining_our_culture/ David Foster Wallace was right: Irony is ruining our culture. Salon.com]
  5. (2016). "Postirony: The Nonfictional Literature of David Foster Wallace and Dave Eggers". transcript Verlag.
  6. (2016). "Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction". Harvard University Press.
  7. Collins, Matthew. (March 4, 2010). "Post-irony is real, and so what?". The Georgetown Voice.
  8. (13 December 2018). "On the Origin of Memes: Meme Scientist Explains Post-Irony and Future of Internet Culture". ITMO University.
  9. "Understanding Gen Z: Post-ironic Humour".
  10. (2021). "Memeology: Normalizing Hate Through Humour?". The Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare.
  11. Greene, V.S.. (2019). ""Deplorable" Satire: Alt-Right Memes, White Genocide Tweets, and Redpilling Normies". Studies in American Humor.
  12. (2019). "Make America Meme Again: The Rhetoric of the Alt-right". Peter Lang.
  13. Nagel, K.W.. (2020). "Book Reviews: Make America Meme Again: The Rhetoric of the Alt-Right". Quarterly Journal of Speech.
  14. Williams, Zoe. [https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/jun/28/weekend7.weekend2 "The final irony"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', June 27, 2003.
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