Corneille's Irony

Compte-rendu dans Acta fabula: L'ironie de Corneille, par Marc Douguet.

Corneille's Irony. By Nina Ekstein. Rookwood Press EMF Critiques. ISBN 978-1-886365-25-4. Perfect bound. 267 pages. List Price $49.95.

Irony of fate, echoic mention, parody, sarcasm, exaggeration, and incongruity perform a variety of functions in Corneille's oeuvre. Applying concepts of intent, reception, and doubt, Nina Ekstein examines the signs of irony in both the plays and the theoretical writings, then highlights the ways in which the figure is woven into his oeuvre. Rejecting the notion that Corneille was an out-and-out ironist, Professor Ekstein presents irony as a local feature and develops its broad implications for his theater as a whole, with special attention to its complexity and its resistance to conclusive interpretation.