Contents: Table of Illustrations Introduction: The `Scene' of Irony Acknowledgements 1. Risky Business: The `Transideological' Politics of Irony 2. The Cutting Edge 3. Modelling Meaning: The Semantics of Irony 4. discursive Communities: How Irony `Happens' 5. Intention and Interpretation: Irony and the Eye of the Beholder 6. Frame-ups and their marks: The Recognition or Attribution of Irony 7. The End(s) of Irony: The Politics fo Appropriateness Bibliography