The Use of Irony Between Puerto Rican Migrants in Nicholasa Mohr's “In Nueva York”

Țigriș Simona-Luiza
University of Bucharest

Abstract

Nicholasa Mohr was born in New York in 1938 to Puerto Rican parents. Her writings depict the struggles and hardships of Puerto Rican migrants in the United States. After World War II, Puerto Rican migration to the U.S. grew dramatically. “In Nueva York” was first published in 1977 and it comprises eight different stories in which various characters interact. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the ironic replies uttered in the characters’ conversations. Why are the characters ironic? How is irony created and how does the hearer react? The traditional view of irony is that it communicates the opposite of what is being said. However, irony is not always the result of flouting the Gricean quality maxim. Attardo (1996, 1999) suggests that irony actually violates co(n)textual appropriateness. Yus (2016) identifies seven contextual sources of irony. Moreover, according to the echoic account of irony, the speaker conveys a reaction or a feeling towards a previous thought or statement (Wilson and Sperber, 2012). Irony is usually perceived as being less aggressive then a direct contradiction when one is conveying a dissociative attitude, it can be a face-saving strategy, it preserves deniability and it can also have a humorous effect. Besides criticizing, it can be noted that in “Nueva York” irony is used as a binding catalyst between the characters.


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