On the Very Idea of Romantic Irony

Abstract

My main goal here is to emphasize that what we could call Rortian pragmatics of language involves the combination of two complex of images. On the one hand the image of the constant re-weaving and widening of experiential circles, a sort of material, fallible and creative vision of culture and thought, and, on the other, the idea of a collective destination self-created and self-assigned, which does not require join or connect with something eminently non-human. Seen this way, what elsewhere I´ve termed "the paradox of Rorty" consists in trying to reconcile ethnocentrism and ironism with the romantic and imaginative horizon of culture. Put more simply: the ethnocentric ironism is not necessarily consistent with the edifying purposes of a self-creative with romantic attributes. In this presentation, then, I´m trying to call attention to a crucial link, rarely analyzed, that leads from to irony, and thence to the metaphorical rupture in pursuit of a romantic perspective of our social world. Simpler still: I propose to show how Rorty, using the figures of, irony and metaphorical romance has helped us to have a different conception on the very idea of a romantic irony.