Irony and Proclamation

In one of his late essays in Speech Genres , Bakhtin traces the secularization of literature to the solvent effects of irony:

“Irony has penetrated all languages of modern times (especially French); it has penetrated into all words and forms . . . Irony is everywhere - from the minimal and imperceptible, to the loud, which borders on laughter. Modern man does not proclaim; he speaks. That is, he speaks with reservations. Proclamatory genres have been retained mainly as parodic and semi-parodic building blocks for the novel. . . . The speaking subjects of high, proclamatory genres ± of priests, prophets, preachers, judges, leaders, patriarchal fathers, and so forth ± have departed this life. They have all been replaced by the writer, simply the writer, who has fallen heir to their styles. . . . . Literature has been completely secularised.”