“What Do Any Of Us Really Know About Love:” A Discussion of Irony within Raymond Carver’s Short Story Cycle What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Name

NiYonna Johnson, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow

Publication Date

2023

Major

English (B.A.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Faculty Mentor

Joe Pellegrino

Abstract

With minimalist technique, Raymond Carver manages to accurately depict a depressed working-class America. Current contemporary criticism has focused on the main themes of Carver’s work such as the struggle with identity, alcoholism, disconnection, and domesticity hardships; the one ideal that has seemed to be missing is the irony that lies within the lives of the characters. This paper will analyze, in depth, short stories from a short story cycle of Raymond Carver and detail how their current situations are directly juxtaposed by their occupations and how this benefits the currently discussed themes of his work.

Recommended Citation

Johnson, NiYonna, "“What Do Any Of Us Really Know About Love:” A Discussion of Irony within Raymond Carver’s Short Story Cycle What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" (2023). Honors College Theses. 887.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/honors-theses/887