Irony as a Form of Dissidence — the Poetry of Stanislaw Baranczak and Paul Muldoon

摘要

The article explores the use of irony as a form of linguistic dissidence in the poetry of a Polish poet, Stanislaw Baranczak, and a Northern Irish poet, Paul Muldoon. It offers an analysis of poems by both poets, written in the period between 1970 and 1990, and which expose political and social preoccupations of both countries at the time. It shows that the ironic stance of both speakers serves as a dissenting voice against the politics of the state as well as the social situation in both countries, while the employment of extra-literary language serves the purpose of discrediting the "official word".