Dyskurs ironiczny. Analiza językowych mechanizmów ironii w "Wykładzie profesora Мmаа" Stefana Themersona

The paper is an attempt at reading Stefan Themerson 's Professor Mmaas Lecture in terms of ironic discourse, its aim is to point out the techniques of ironic text formation. The discussion has been abridged to literary irony, which is seen as related to the comic. The difference between the ironic attitude of the ironist and the actual realization of this attitude in а text has been emphasized. The writer distinguishes three functional strata of literary irony: in relation with another written text, in relation with extratextual reality and in relation with otherpassages of the same text. The role of quotation in ironic discourse has Ьееn brought forward, the quotation being understood broadly as а dialogue with extralinguistic reality, especially with philosophical views. Attention has been given to the ironist's perspective; the role of distance, •isolation and distinctness of the depicted reality in achieving the ironic effect has been emphasized, as well as the characteristic amЬivalence of the ironist. The ironic reversion has been analysed in terms of the "reversed world", the manipulation with the object of discourse and the strategy of disguise, the latter manifest in disturbed common metaphorical expressions