Cover not available

In:Pragmatics and Literature
Edited by Siobhan Chapman and Billy Clark
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 35] 2019
► pp. 45–71

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 3
A Levinsonian account of irony in Jonathan Coe’s The Rotters’ Club

Published online: 5 December 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.35.03pat
Article outline
  • 3.1Introduction
  • 3.2Accounts of irony
    • 3.2.1The Gricean approach
    • 3.2.2Relevance theory and irony
  • 3.3Irony and the use of Levinson’s principles
  • 3.4Application of Levinsonian analysis to ironies from TRC
    • 3.4.1Example 1: “Such dazzling repartee”
      • 3.4.1.1Inferential steps
    • 3.4.2Example 2: “showing a lack of judgement and an absence of patriotic decency that can scarcely be credited”
      • 3.4.2.1Inferential steps
    • 3.4.3Example 3: “With these and other such pleasantries”
      • 3.4.3.1Inferential steps
    • 3.4.4Example 4: “a drink which differed hardly at all”
      • 3.4.4.1Inferential steps
    • 3.4.5Example 5: “I can safely say that those two won’t be seeing each other again”
      • 3.4.5.1Inferential steps
    • 3.4.6Example 6: “The fervour of my gratitude is well-nigh inexpressible”
      • 3.4.6.1Inferential steps
  • 3.5Summary
  • Notes
  • References
References (26)
References
Barbe, K. (1995). Irony in context. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booth, W. C. (1974). A Rhetoric of irony. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bryant, G. A. and Fox Tree, J. E. (2002). Recognizing verbal irony in spontaneous speech. Metaphor and Symbol 17 (2), 99–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clift, R. (1999). Irony in conversation. Language in Society 28, 523–553. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coe, J. (2002). The Rotters’ Club. London: Penguin Books Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005). The closed circle. London: Penguin Books Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Marginal notes, doubtful statements: Non-fiction, 1990–2013. London: Penguin Books Ltd. (ebook).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colebrook, C. (2000). The meaning of irony. Textual Practice 14 (1), 5–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Irony: The new critical idiom. Oxford: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colston, H. L. and O’Brien, J. (2000). Contrast and pragmatics in figurative language: Anything understatement can do, irony can do better. Journal of Pragmatics 32, 1557–1583. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuddon, J. A. (1999). Penguin dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. London: Penguin Books Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, J. (2001). Language and characterization: People in plays and other texts. Harlow, UK: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, P. (1989). Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guignery, V. (2016). Laughing out loud with Jonathan Coe: A conversation. Études britanniques contemporaines 51. Retrieved from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gutleben, C. (2016). Bleak humour: Jonathan Coe’s politeness of despair in The Rotters’ Club. Études britanniques contemporaines, 51.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haverkate, H. (1990). A speech act analysis of irony. Journal of Pragmatics 14 (1990), 77–109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Y. (2007). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levinson, S. (2000). Presumptive meanings: The theory of generalized conversational implicature. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muecke, D. (1969). The compass of irony. London: Methuen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1982). Irony: The Critical Idiom. London: Methuen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pilkington, A. (1996). Introduction: relevance theory and literary style. Language and Literature 5 (3), 157–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Short, M. (1996). Exploring the language of poems, plays and prose. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, D. and Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: Communication and cognition, 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wales, K. (2011). A dictionary of stylistics. Harlow, United Kingdom: Longman. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilson, D. and Sperber, D. (1992). On verbal irony. Lingua 87 (1992), 53–76. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Pattison, Steven
2025.  A Possible Worlds Theory Account of Dramatic Irony in Fawlty Towers : A Touch of Class and The Builders . Metaphor and Symbol 40:2 ► pp. 114 ff. DOI logo
Chapman, Siobhan
2020. Implicature. In The Pragmatics of Revision, ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Chapman, Siobhan
2023. ‘I don’t know how it is best to put this thing down’: Uncooperative narration in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 32:4 ► pp. 385 ff. DOI logo
Statham, Simon
2020. The year’s work in stylistics 2019. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 29:4 ► pp. 454 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue