Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Testing, stretching, and aligning
T2 - Using ‘ironic personae’ to make sense of complicated issues
AU - Kwon, W.
AU - Mackay, R.
AU - Clarke, I.
AU - Wodak, R.
AU - Vaara, E.
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - Irony and humor play an important role in both organizing and organizations, because they both help to collide and contrast ideas as well as mitigate and moderate criticism. Our empirical observations of a senior management team suggest participants frequently use verbal irony and aggressive conversational humor through ‘ironic personae’ – a cast of characters, real or imaginary – as a vehicle for pragmatically making sense of complicated topics. We show how ironic personae perform three functions: (i) testing new positions on topics in a non-committal way; (ii) stretching the frame of comparison of a group; and (iii) aligning shared understanding and commitment. Thus, our analysis sheds light on an underexplored and undertheorised pragmatic vehicle for the expression of humorous verbal irony and aggressive conversational humor.
AB - Irony and humor play an important role in both organizing and organizations, because they both help to collide and contrast ideas as well as mitigate and moderate criticism. Our empirical observations of a senior management team suggest participants frequently use verbal irony and aggressive conversational humor through ‘ironic personae’ – a cast of characters, real or imaginary – as a vehicle for pragmatically making sense of complicated topics. We show how ironic personae perform three functions: (i) testing new positions on topics in a non-committal way; (ii) stretching the frame of comparison of a group; and (iii) aligning shared understanding and commitment. Thus, our analysis sheds light on an underexplored and undertheorised pragmatic vehicle for the expression of humorous verbal irony and aggressive conversational humor.
KW - Carnival
KW - Complexity
KW - Discourse analysis
KW - Humor
KW - Ironic personae
KW - Sensemaking
U2 - 10.1016/j.pragma.2020.06.001
DO - 10.1016/j.pragma.2020.06.001
M3 - Journal article
VL - 166
SP - 44
EP - 58
JO - Journal of Pragmatics
JF - Journal of Pragmatics
SN - 0378-2166
ER -