The Postmodern Turn: irony and Parody in 'A Valediction forbidding mourning'

Abstract

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning' by the contemporary American poet Adrienne Rich incorporates some ironies in its structure and at the same time parodies the 17th century English poet John Donne's 'A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning'. These instances of irony and parody in rich's poem point to its postmodern nature- its subjectivity, self-consciousness, historicity and self-critical distance-and thereby dehistoricize and deconstruct Donne's poem and its conventions. But before turning to the discussion of the nature and function of the irony and parody inherent in rich's poem, It is necessary to engage with the nature of these two tropes so that the discussion receives an adequate theoretical foundation.