“A SOCIAL MASQUERADE”: THE IRONIC DISCOURSE OF SUNSHINE SKETCHES OF A LITTLE TOWN (LEACOCK, 1912)

Resumo

Intricate as it may seem, the false causality which structures motivation is essential for the functioning of the literary discourse; an event needs to be motivated by something symbolic in itself – it needs to be larger than it might seem to be at first. The only truth in literature is the one hidden behind the lies it tells. Bearing that in mind, the purpose of the following analysis is to reflect upon Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town’s (LEACOCK, 1912) narrator discourse; my focus, more specifically, is to make out if and how s/he makes use of irony to create a “false causality” – that is, masking facts and imposing an illogic logic throughout his/her manipulation of events. Thereby, I shall tackle mainly with the appearance of philanthropy and corruption in the narrative, as to see which kind of treatment both these instances receive. When dealing with the analysis and translation of humour, one must pay special attention to the following issues: 1) the dangers of marginalising the literature of times and spaces mistakenly taken as irrelevant to us, 2) humour as a consistent means to political and social awareness, 3) translation as an autonomous and original process of creation and establishment of new epistemological reasoning. This is why my literary analysis of Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (LEACOCK, 1912) pay special attention to the ironic tone of the narrator as a means to understand some of the issues unveiled within his discourse.