Irony is more than just a literary device; the Zeitgeist of an age or the Weltanschauung of a people can be inferred by looking into their use of irony.

Our current age is so saturated with irony that we have plunged irony into the most advanced stages: into meta-irony, hyper-irony, and postmodern irony.

In his 1841 work, On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard shows how toxic and nihilistic a force irony can be. Socrates used irony to prove to his fellow Athenians that they actually know nothing. Yet Socrates had nothing behind the curtain to offer them instead.

The Hebrews are quickly dissatisfied after they escape slavery, and their first complaint to Moses is drenched in irony. Coincidence?

The German Romantic Friedrich Schlegel saw Ironic Art as the pi ...