Irony and Social Power in R. Chandler's 'The Little Sister'

The article focuses on the various facets and values of irony as a figure of speech, used to express power relations. The corpus is excerpted from Raymond Chandler’s novel The Little Sister” and it regards characters united by their social power which derives from their professional status as representatives of state authority. Nevertheless, they have distinct individualities determined by the cultural and discourse community they belong to. Irony typology, social effects and dramatic values in context intermingle resulting in a pungent text meant to reflect those individualities.