Irony

Abstract

Irony is the first mood which announces a crisis in the aesthetic life. It indicates a prise de conscience and a new attitude toward the actual world around one. In irony, one realizes that beforehand one had been immersed in the world and believed its implicit promise of fulfillment. With the advent of irony one has broken through illusion — in experience — and initially takes up an attitude of negativity, of passionate rejection, of the actuality which deceived.

Ut a dubitatione philosophia sic ab ironia vita digna quae humana vocetur, incipit. — Thesis XV, Om Begrebet Ironi.