The Politics of Irony in Kathryn Stockett’s The Help
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Department of English
Abstract
This thesis explores the politics of irony in Kathryn Stockett’s novel The Help.
It explores the way of subverting high values and reinforcing marginalized ones and
also explores the resistance of working-class people. Stockett presents problems of
racial segregation and discrimination, combined with occurrences of unjust treatment
and both verbal and physical mistreatment. This paper brings the theoretical concept
from Linda Hutcheon and Wyne C Booth in order to investigate Stockett's politics of
making radical use of irony. Hutcheon's trans-ideological and subversive functions of
irony are applicable to this research. By using Hutcheon's concept, it finds out
Stockett’s politics of irony that helps her to subvert the high discourse, values, and
hypocrisy and at the same time to reinforce the marginalized discourse and values.
Thus, it is concluded that irony helps Stocket to make marginalized people aware by
unmasking the complexity and multiplicity of high culture.
Keywords: Irony, trans-ideological, subversive, reinforcing, context, resistance