From emma to clueless: ironic representations of jane austen1

Abstract

This essay discusses the constructions and functions of irony in Amy Hecherling’s Clueless (1995), a contemporary and loose filmic adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma (1816). The analysis reveals that Heckerling plays with the intersection of past and present and parodies, through an explicit ironical look, both Austen’s and our contemporary world.