happens in discrete and often sophisticated ways. She analyzes irony's logic and the way in which it operates in relations to concepts of difference and identity, intentionality and interpretation, and the inappropriate and the appropriate.
She examines these concerns vis-a-vis an array of references gathered from contemporary and modern culture. She looks at works such as the novels of Umberto Eco, the operas and symphonies of Richard Wagner, and the art of Anselm Kiefer. She focuses on popular cultural figures such as Madonna and the recent film of Shakespeare's Henry V.
Her book is one of the first synthesized theoretical accounts of the cultural phenomenology of irony. In "Irony's Edge," Hutcheon elaborates upon her earlier work on parody ("A Theory of Parody") and scutizines the mechanics of irony in fundamentally salient and critical ways.

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