The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Sarcasm

Sarcasm: From the Greek for “to tear flesh like dogs,” intentional derision through cutting humor or wit, often directed at another person and designed to hurt or ridicule. Sarcasm frequently involves obvious, even exaggerated verbal irony, jeeringly stating the opposite of what is meant (for instance, false praise) so as to heighten the insult.

EXAMPLES: Comedian Groucho Marx’s one-liner “I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception”; the barbed exchange between twentieth-century American novelists William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, in which Faulkner asserted that Hemingway “has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to a dictionary,” and Hemingway replied, “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think that big emotions come from big words?”