Medieval Irony

Author / Editor
Reiss, Edmund.

Title
Medieval Irony

Published
Journal of the History of Ideas 42 (1981): 209-26.

Description
Although lacking the modern consciousness of irony, the Middle Ages was ironic both in its Christian view of the world and in its literary expression. Examines the "concordantia oppositorum" in art and literature. "The constant possibility of irony" (Zumthor) makes the antinomies of "ernest"/"game" and "mirth"/"doctryne" in Chaucer both convoluted and significant.

Chaucer Subjects
Background and General Criticism.