Week 4 WS 22 and 23 Oct

We will meet this week, despite it being the Dean's Sports Day on 22 October.

Assignment for WEEK 4:

IRONY

Term definition:

• With reference to at least two scholarly sources, define irony, focussing on the following questions:
  Q: What work does irony do, what effects does it create?
  Q: What are some of the types of irony and why is it useful to distinguish between them?

N.B.: This is NOT part of the homework for Week 2/3 (definitions of tropes). Definitions of irony will be reviewed in class; make notes but you are not asked to send them beforehand.

Reading & Questions for Discussion:

• Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 and Swift’s 'A Modest Proposal'. Both use irony as a key device. 
  Q: Identify specific forms of irony used by both authors.
  Q: Evaluate the use of irony in each – what impact does it have on you as a reader? How does irony work to develop the central theme of each text??
  Q: Imagine what would be lost or gained if irony were not a feature in either of the text.

• BRING Shelley’s “Ozymandias” and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 60 to the class – we will discuss your identification of the 4 tropes in the two poems (See assignment for Week 3).

^{https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pntradio/episodes/A-Modest-Proposal-e1fqh5p}