一反讽是西方文论最主要的概念之一,反讽原来是古希腊喜剧中的一种角色,即假装无知者,在自以为是的聪明人面前故意说傻话,但却是最后的胜利者,如柏拉图《对话录》中的苏格拉底就是属于这种角色,后来反讽不断发展,成为修辞学中的一种修辞方式①。尤其是20世纪40年代“新批评派”崛起,瑞恰慈、布鲁克斯、燕卜荪等人将反讽升格为诗歌语言的基本原则,而且将之衍生成诗歌的基本方式和哲学态度。布鲁克斯在《悖论语言》中说:“语境对于一 An irony is one of the most important concepts in Western literary theory. It turns out that irony was originally a part of ancient Greek comedies, pretending to be ignorant, deliberately speaking silly in front of self-righteous cleverness, but who was the final winner Socrates, Plato’s Dialogue, belongs to this role. Later, irony continued to evolve and became a rhetorical device in rhetoric. Especially in the 1940s, the rise of ”New Criticism“, Rachael Ci, Brooks, Swallows and others elevated the irony to the basic principle of the poetic language, and derived it into the basic method and philosophical attitude of poetry. Brooks said in the paradoxical language: ”Context for one