Syntactic Tools of Achieving Irony in Joseph Conrad’s “An Outpost of Progress" and "Heart of Darkness" A Syntactic-Stylistic Analysis

The current study discusses Conrad's ability to attain irony through a syntactic stylistic analysis within Conrad’s short story “An Outpost of Progress” and the novella “Heart of Darkness”. Both literary works discuss similar themes regarding the colonial period of the white man in Africa. The selection of both works for analysis built on the notion that both of them share ironical attitudes concerning imperialism. A qualitative and a quantitative analysis is conducted following the checklist of Short and Leech (2007) in order to categorize the syntactic manipulations which Conrad employs in both works. The procedures followed for collecting data based on four stages. They are included in selecting the content, showing irony through Conrad’s adjectival insistence, showing irony through Conrad’s uncertainty verb “seem”, and showing irony through lexemes of uncertainty (uncertainty qualifiers). The study component concentration is applied to both syntax and stylistics resources which include an analysis of phraseological and clausal levels. In terms of the syntactic analysis, the current study is associated only with the three main categories concerning the phraseological level namely noun, adjective, and verb phrases.  In terms of clausal level, the current study is restricted to certain expressions or lexemes of uncertainty which is represented in “as if”, “as though” and “as”. Through such syntactic lexemes, ironical acts are configured; the focus is on verbal irony. The study concludes that Conrad's modifiers, especially adjectives, are proved to be of great help to achieve his ironic purposes. Stylistically, Conrad's verbal practice proves to be in accordance with his impressionistic imagery.