The Art Of Irony In Evelyn Waugh's A Handful Of Dust

Evelyn Waugh is recognized as a famous novelist in 20^th century's Britain. His works are republished several times and among them, the novel Brideshead Revisited was once adapted to the screen. Waugh kept in line with the tradition of irony in English literature descending from Jonathan Swift to Bernard Shaw. He depicted the post- WW I reality in Britain with his incisive writing style and provided us a vivid panorama including politics, culture, custom , etc. Irony is a notable characteristic of Waugh's novels, and it is the pivotal factor contributing to Waugh's long lasting and ever increasing reputation. Irony penetrates every aspect of Waugh's novels, from the diction, the characters, the scenes, to the themes and structural design. Irony is not only a primary artistic maneuver of Waugh's novels, but also a framework in which Waugh apperceives the world.However, domestic study on Waugh is not adequate. At present, the scholars and papers studying Waugh are quite few and study in this respect is incomplete and unsystematic. Still less attention has been paid to the art of irony in A Handful of Dust.This paper will focus on A Handful of Dust and elucidate the art of irony, the value of aesthetics and the underlying orientation of spirituality through aspects of trope and ideology with the support of the theories including the usage of irony, intertextuality and intension. Hope that this paper might discuss Waugh's art of irony more comprehensively and thoroughly, and offer some fundamental work to the study on Waugh and his novel A Handful of dust.