This article deals with the notion of romantic irony and discusses its presence in Freud’s writing. Romantic irony refers to an attitude towards existence, towards a specific mode of dealing with the limits of language and representation. The totalizing ambition that justifies the romantic character of irony is absent in Freud. However, in his confrontation with the text one can see the pendulary movement characteristic of romantic irony.
Romantic irony; romanticism; Freud’s writing