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Towards a Complex Third-Way Irony

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Towards a Complex Third-Way Irony Towards a Complex Third-Way Irony A Critical Review of the Contribution of Organisational Studies to an Understanding of Irony as a Strategy for Living in Modern Organisations A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Macquarie University by Richard Claydon B.A. Hons (Fine Art and Visual Studies), M.A. (Cross Cultural Communication and International Management) Macquarie Graduate School of Management 2013 For Lily ii Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................... iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................................................. vi Thesis Certification ..................................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables and Illustrations .................................................................................................................ix Publications and Papers ............................................................................................................................... x Acknowledgement ..........................................................................................................................................xi 1 INTRODUCTION: COMPLEX IRONY AS A STRATEGY FOR LIVING ........................... 1 1.1.1 Notes on the Chapters ...................................................................................................................5 1.1.2 Notes on the Appendices ........................................................................................................... 10 2 A FRAMEWORK OF IRONIC TENSIONS ........................................................................... 13 2.1 INTRODUCTION: DEFINING IRONY ...............................................................................................13 2.1.1 Lay Definitions of Irony ............................................................................................................. 14 2.1.2 Academic Definitions of Irony ................................................................................................ 15 2.1.3 The Philosophical and Emotional Dimensions of Irony ............................................. 17 2.2 THE PHILOSOPHICAL DIMENSION: PERSPECTIVE, PERFORMANCE, PERSONALITY ............19 2.2.1 The Ironic Perspective ............................................................................................................... 20 2.2.2 The Ironic Performance ............................................................................................................ 23 2.2.3 The Ironic Personality ............................................................................................................... 26 2.3 THE EMOTIONAL DIMENSION: STABLE SANITY OR UNSTABLE DEVILRY? ...........................30 2.3.1 Tension I: Stable Superiority or Unstable Nihilism? .................................................... 30 2.3.2 Tension II: The Snorkel of Sanity or the Devil’s Mark ................................................. 34 2.3.3 The Dimensions of Extended Figurative Irony ............................................................... 38 2.3.4 The Tactics of Extended Figurative Irony ........................................................................ 43 2.4 CONCLUSION: THE DIMENSIONS, TENSIONS AND TACTICS OF THE EXTENDED PERFORMANCE OF AN IRONIC PERSONALITY ............................................................................................47 3 THE IRONIC PERSPECTIVE IN MORGAN’S THEORY OF METAPHOR .................... 49 3.1 INTRODUCTION: THE FOLLY AND FALLIBILITY OF METAPHOR .............................................49 3.2 GARETH MORGAN: MORE THAN JUST A METAPHOR THEORIST ............................................50 3.2.1 The Tactic of Fallibility ............................................................................................................. 52 3.2.2 The Tactic of Meta-Fallibility or Existential Folly ........................................................ 54 3.2.3 The Tactic of Elaboration ........................................................................................................ 55 3.3 THE IRONIC OUTCOME OF MORGAN’S VISION ...........................................................................57 3.3.1 Cliff Oswick’s Ironic Tactic ....................................................................................................... 58 3.3.2 The Limitations of Oswick’s Model of Irony ..................................................................... 59 3.3.3 Turning to the Rhetorical Tradition of Metaphor ........................................................ 63 3.4 KENNETH BURKE: A RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON TRUTH .................................................68 3.4.1 Poetic and Scientific Realism .................................................................................................. 68 3.4.2 Burke’s Mechanics of Figurative Language..................................................................... 69 3.4.3 Synecdoche and the Mechanisms of Entrapment ......................................................... 71 3.4.4 The Structure of Synecdoche I: Binaries ........................................................................... 74 3.4.5 The Structure of Synecdoche II: Rhetorical Inducement ........................................... 76 iii 3.5 CONFRONTING THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF SYNECDOCHE: THE BURKEAN IRONIC PERSPECTIVE ..................................................................................................................................................78 3.5.1 The Tragic Acceptance of Synecdochic Fallibility ........................................................ 78 3.5.2 Comic Acceptance and Irony as a Perspective of Perspectives ............................... 80 3.6 CONCLUSION: MERGING PERSPECTIVE AND PERFORMANCE INTO PERSONALITY ..............85 4 CHARACTERS OF THE IRONIC MODE IN KUNDA’S ENGINEERING CULTURE .... 87 4.1 INTRODUCTION: KUNDA’S IRONIC ORGANISATION SELVES ....................................................87 4.2 THE RESTRICTED VIEW OF KUNDA’S IRONIC ORGANISATIONAL SELF .................................88 4.2.1 Frye’s Ironic Mode and Its Characters ............................................................................... 90 4.2.2 Kunda’s Sociological Interpretation of the Ironic Mode ............................................ 92 4.3 THE DIMENSIONS OF FRYE’S IRONIC MODE IN KUNDA’S ENGINEERING CULTURE ............94 4.3.1 1992’s Engineering Culture: Utopian Dreams and Dystopian Fears ................... 94 4.3.2 2006’s Engineering Culture: Faded Faith and Self-Interested Hedonism ......... 95 4.4 ENGINEERING CULTURE AS IRONIC TRAGEDY WITH COMIC INTERLUDES ...........................97 4.4.1 Ironic Tragedy in Engineering Culture .............................................................................. 97 4.4.2 Ironic Comedy in Engineering Culture ............................................................................ 100 4.5 THE CHARACTERS OF THE IRONIC MODE I: HEROES AND ALAZONS .................................. 103 4.5.1 The Hero as a Blank Cypher ................................................................................................. 103 4.5.2 The Senex Iratus (Heavy Handed Father Figure) ...................................................... 105 4.5.3 The Miles Gloriosus (Boastful Soldier) ............................................................................ 106 4.5.4 The Learned Crank ................................................................................................................... 107 4.5.5 The Obsessed Pedant ............................................................................................................... 108 4.6 DEEPENING KUNDA: ORGANISATIONAL EIRONS IN ENGINEERING CULTURE ................... 109 4.6.1 Kunda: The Author-Eiron ...................................................................................................... 110 4.6.2 The Sarcastic-Eiron ................................................................................................................. 111 4.6.3 The Trickster-Eiron .................................................................................................................. 115 4.6.4 The Wise-Eiron ........................................................................................................................... 117 4.7 CONCLUSION: A SOPHISTICATED VIEW OF IRONIC ORGANISATIONAL MEN ..................... 119 5 THE TEMPER OF THE TIMES: IRONY AND DECADENCE IN THE WORK OF PETER FLEMING ........................................................................................................................... 122 5.1 INTRODUCTION: FROM INCIVIL TO RESTLESS DECADENCE ................................................. 122 5.2 IRONY IN A DECADENT AGE ....................................................................................................... 123 5.3 CONTEMPORARY CONTESTATIONS IN THE INTERPRETATION AND USE OF IRONY .......... 126 5.3.1 The Simple Negativity of “Bad” Irony .............................................................................. 126 5.3.2 The Balanced Interpretation ............................................................................................... 129 5.3.3
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