For all his ironic sensibility, Hartz was something of an optimist.

Fox can also be heavy-handed with his interpretations, which are sometimes highly idiosyncratic, as when he writes that "modernists did not invent the ironic sensibility.

But unhappily, as the movie goes along, its initial flash of wit and its hint of an ironic self-referential sensibility quickly dim.

The arrangements filter some of the most flashy British blues-rock stylings through an ironic post-punk sensibility.

Purdy's target was the ironic sensibility that, he said, had infected just about everyone under 35; his arch villain was Jerry Seinfeld, "irony incarnate."

The stories in the collection depict the lives of Czech immigrants in America with an ironic sensibility.

Mr. Davies had an ironic sensibility about 20 years before it became cool.

And this year's Peabody board members were not immune to programs with lighter, ironic sensibilities.

What is different is Monteverdi's richer ironic sensibility, yet another aspect of his provocatively modern sense of theater.

"The ironic sensibility inhibits the act of remembering how to value what you value."