This study deals with the important role played by oblique writing in Francis Ponge’s work through the notions of irony and humour. Relying both on the author’s numerous statements on the importance of such notions in his work and on the latest research attempting to define these complex, embarrassing categories, irony is not defined as a mere figure of inversion but as a rhetorical fact encompassing a multitude of discursive practices. It is more precisely regarded as a polyphonic, inter-textual phenomenon whose specificity lies, on the one hand, in its critical dimension, and on the other hand, in its enunciative ambiguity. As for humour, it is considered as a contesting game inscribed in the language order. Consequently, irony and humour can be regarded as two different, complementary forms of critical meta-speech covering the whole field of Pongian poetics, whether it is rhetorical, aesthetic or ethical. The first part endeavours to unearth the conditions and constitution of an ironical posture from texts prior to the poetics of bias, often neglected by critics but which turn out to be essential inasmuch as they give an insight into the problematic of Pongian poetics’ stakes and intuitions. The second part is dedicated to the discursive strategies implemented in the texts. Such strategies are considered as much in terms of figures or instruments as overall textual devices, which open up the way to an aesthetics of irony. Finally the third part deals with the political and moral project underlying Ponge’s work and attempts to define irony and humour as demonstrations of the author’s ethical position.
