Through a Pragmatic Lens: Unpacking Schadenfreude in The Contexts of Illness and Death
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/lark.5715Keywords:
Schadenfreude, Impoliteness theory, misfortuneAbstract
In any culture and religion, feeling happy at the others misfortune is acknowledged as an immoral trait as humanity is above all titles. In normal life, individuals face a lot of misfortune where others may experience schadenfreude against them. This phenomena becomes very omnipresent due to social media platforms. The researcher intends to examine this phenomena due to the unpredicted evil feelings media users reflect. Their comments, posted after the announcement of King Charles III is diagnosed with cancer and the late Iranian President and his colleague’s death after their helicopter crash, show pleasure. Fifteen comments about each incident were selected and collected from BBC channel on YouTube. After the channel posted such incidents, people flooded with comments reflecting their happiness. Many of them attribute such misfortune, both figures face, to their wrong doings. They consider it as a fair punishment. The researcher manipulates Culpeper (1996) Impoliteness model to examine the forms of schadenfreude.
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