Irony as Defiance, Manipulation, and Subversion: A Pragma‐Cultural Analysis of Phoebe Waller‐Bridge’s Fleabag

The tv-series Fleabag (2016), written and interpreted by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, has received critical acclaim for its representation of non-normative femininity and for its candid, subversive approach to trauma, guilt and grief. The protagonist’s “refusal and/or inability to conform to expectations around public decency, feminine norms, and heterosexual romance” (Dove-Viebahn, 1) openly calls for discussion of vulnerability and conformity in contemporary society, revealing the complexities of the struggle between self-determination and social expectations. The discrepancy between these forces is stylistically configured through the metafictional device of breaking the fourth wall and direct address: by speaking directly to the audience, the protagonist reclaims agency in the narration of her life while also revealing a dissociation between her inner life and her actions. In Fleabag’s complex semiotic structure, irony becomes critical as a pragmatic and cultural communicative device, and its purpose can only be understood when it is examined in relation to the social and cultural context in which it is formed. This chapter looks at the use of verbal irony in Fleabag as the linguistic means through which she narrates the conflict between distance and intimacy, love and manipulation, and subjectivity and social constraints.