On the situational irony and the image irony in contemporary Chinese fictions

The situational irony and the image irony are the major artistic forms of irony in contemporary Chinese fiction. The situational irony is generally discernible from the following four manifestations: realistic, historic, fictitious and abnormal. The situational irony usually plays an important role in arranging plots, portraying characters and highlighting the themes of literary works. The image irony mainly incarnates ironic significance through the unique preposterous combination between symbolic form and symbolic intension of the image.