Going superstitious and blaming the invisible ‘other’. A linguistic appraisal of social media posts on ‘Village People’
Going superstitious and blaming the invisible ‘other’. A linguistic appraisal of social media posts on ‘Village People’

Summary/Abstract: In this study, we explore how superstitions and blame are weaved in the linguistic constructions and representations of village people, the infamous mystic villains. Using Cultural Discourse Analysis (CuDA), we examine selected social media tweets and posts in which netizens deployed a mix of linguistic humour, traditional African belief system, and quasi-religious sensibilities to project irrational belief in supernatural influences of village people. We show how discursive conceptualisations such as evilification, enemification, remote controlling and monitoring are used superstitiously to blame the imaginary village people for individual and personal adversities of the unfortunates. The paper underscores how peculiar Nigerian socio-religiosity and shared socio-cultural background shape the instantiation of fears and institution of potency of vicious supernatural powers.

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