De los muertos no siempre se habla bien: muestras de la ironía en los textos periodísticos sobre Hugo Chávez Frías

Abstract

In the present paper, irony is perceived as a rhetorical strategy used to emphasize certain issues described in selected discourses. It goes beyond the scope of antiphrasis which was a traditional way of referring to irony. It is a pragmatic phenomenon and the context is crucial for its understanding. Since irony is a perfect tool for persuasion, it can be analyzed within press discourse. The present paper sets out to analyze instances of irony in press articles extracted from the Spanish newspaper El País published over a period of 30 days following the death of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.