The Dubious Privilege of Irony as a Trace of Despair…: Narrative Strategy in Zyta Oryszyn’s Prose

Abstract

This article examines irony as a central narrative strategy in Zyta Oryszyn’s prose. Far from serving merely as an expression of despair, irony functions as a mode of resistance against communist propaganda and censorship. Drawing on the author’s personal experience and oppositional activism, the novels Czarna Iluminacja [Black Illumination], Madam Frankensztajn [Madame Frankenstein], and Ocalenie Atlantydy [Salvation of Atlantis] depict trauma, alienation, and the disintegration of the individual under an oppressive regime. In these works, irony demystifies the language of power, discloses the illusion underlying social conventions, and lays bare the absurdities of everyday life in the Polish People’s Republic.