TY - JOUR
T1 - “Joking isn't safe”;
T2 - Fanny fern, irony, and signifyin(g)
AU - Wright, Elizabethada A.
PY - 2001/3/1
Y1 - 2001/3/1
N2 - Much about the trope of irony is confusing. However, a consideration of the similarities between irony and African American Signification can help us recognize that this confusion can empower rhetors. One rhetor who can illustrate this power is Fanny Fern, a white nineteenth‐century American newspaper columnist whose rhetoric could be described as Signification. Simultaneously praising and condemning subjects such as suffrage, Fern was able to write on subjects forbidden to many. In addition, Fern's use of Signifyin(g) ironic rhetoric illustrates that language is not as determined as many would believe.
AB - Much about the trope of irony is confusing. However, a consideration of the similarities between irony and African American Signification can help us recognize that this confusion can empower rhetors. One rhetor who can illustrate this power is Fanny Fern, a white nineteenth‐century American newspaper columnist whose rhetoric could be described as Signification. Simultaneously praising and condemning subjects such as suffrage, Fern was able to write on subjects forbidden to many. In addition, Fern's use of Signifyin(g) ironic rhetoric illustrates that language is not as determined as many would believe.
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U2 - 10.1080/02773940109391201
DO - 10.1080/02773940109391201
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85011723395
SN - 0277-3945
VL - 31
SP - 91
EP - 111
JO - Rhetoric Society Quarterly
JF - Rhetoric Society Quarterly
IS - 2
ER -