Schadenfreude? -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 04:19:15 03/26/08 Wed
Author: Betsy Peters
Subject: Schadenfreude?

In Book 3, Chapter 2 of Things Hidden, Girard describes the relationship between mimetic rivals as a teeter-totter sort of relationship. Despite the fact that "one up, one down" leads to rivarly, Girard argues that the triumph of one over the other guards against the even worse state of "neutrality" where both grasp, but neither succeeds. As he writes, "It is not hard to be pleased at something that depresses your rival, and not to be depressed at something that pleases him" (307). This sounds like the concept of schadenfreude to me--joy at another's misfortune. Is schadenfreude just another term for the expression of aquisitive mimesis?

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