scholarly journals Katyń Anniversaries in 1990–2010. The Position and Functions of Political Ritual in the Polish Culture of Remembrance. Research Report

Author(s):  
Sylwia Czubaj-Kuźmin

The main goal of the research is to show the functional dimension of the political rituals associated with the celebrations of the Katyń massacre anniversaries in 1990-2010. Using the method of political linguistics, the study makes it possible to identify ten topoi organizing the Katyń anniversary discourse. They include the topos of “an innocent victim”, “violated justice”, “compensation”, “fair Russians”, “friends Muscovites”, “elite”, as well as the topos of “a shared field of remembrance, reconciliation” (“from foes to friends”), the topos of mutual forgiveness and the anniversary as a special occasion, or the topos of “inhuman land”. The pragmatic-semantic analysis of the contents of media reports accompanying the Katyń celebrations allows the author to show a number of functions that the Katyń ritual performed in the Polish culture of remembrance in 1990–2010. The study of functions proceeds from emotional, through normative, legitimization, integration and educational functions, to the performative function.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (11-2) ◽  
pp. 4-28
Author(s):  
Sergey Kulikov

For the first time in historiography, the article examines the nature of the political views and political ritual of Nicholas II and the correlation of these factors, which had a decisive influence on the internal political situation of the Russian Empire in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The author comes to the conclusion that in modernizing societies, political rituals do not so much reveal, but hide the true political views of the modernizing ruler.


Author(s):  
Veronika A. Kameneva ◽  
Nadezda V. Rabkina

The present study is based on such relevant areas of modern linguistics as Political linguistics and Linguistic personology. It included//includes samples of 30 speeches given by US President Joe Biden during his 2020 election campaign. A review of related scientific publications showed almost no detailed works on linguistic means connected with tactics that brings about delegitimization strategy; nor is there any unified term for a strategy of creating a negative image of a political rival in the election discourse. The authors believe that, in the election discourse, the abovementioned strategy aims at destroying the credibility of the political opponent and the solutions they have to offer beyond questioning their legality. Therefore, the tactics of ethical evaluation can be an effective means to destroy the credibility of a political oppo nent by using words of evaluative connotation. The tactics makes it possible to explicate a direct or contextual negative attitude to an opponent. Joe Bidens ethical evaluation of Donald Trump appeared to have three axiological aspects. The research used the theoretical and methodological apparatus of Political linguistics and Linguistic personology, e.g. such methods as content analysis, lexical-semantic analysis, and intent analysis. The paper introduces an analysis of lexemes that verbalize the tactics of ethical evaluation, which showed predominance of words and idioms of an unambiguous negative evaluative connotation. The authors also detected the absence of any abusive language that could be interpreted as a direct insult or accusation. The results can be used for a critical analysis of the political discourse of individual politicians.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-81
Author(s):  
Man Kumar Rai

   The objective of this article is to analyze the use of satire in three poems, from Rupesh  Shrestha’s volume of poems Ghintang Ghishi Twank in order to examine use of the suffering of voiceless people. The poems depict absurdities of the society and hypocrisy of the leaders which are the causes of poor people‟s pains. This poems exhibit how follies, vices and absurdities are hurdle in transforming society into prosperous one. The poet has berated them with the aim of bringing positive change in the society and in the lives of the common people. The poet mocks at the political changes which have brought change only in the lives of political leaders, not in the lives of the people who have been ignored by the state for long. Despite many anxieties, they enjoy dancing and playing sticks in their hands on the special occasion of Gaijatra. The poems are collection of sharp words which are used to butt the corrupt politicians. For this, the elements of Juvenalian satire have been used as tools for analysis of the selected poems. This study highlights upon the anxieties of marginalized people; demonstrates the shameful act of politicians; and exposes the absurdities prevailed in the society. It indicates that the political and social absurdities are subject to be poked in order to reform a society.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 664-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Müller ◽  
Elena Trubina

This paper discusses improvisation as a liminal practice of inhabiting the in-between that marks urban spaces from squats and brownfields to communal gardens, from infrastructural maintenance and urban living labs to political protest and solidarity in times of crisis. It shows how improvisation emerges in the interstices between uncertain flux and ossified rigidities to construct in-between spaces of ambiguous political openings even in ostensibly formal, rigid contexts. To that end, it draws on documents, media reports, interviews and participant observation to analyse the multiple mutations of what eventually became the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre in Ekaterinburg, a cultural flagship in Russia’s third largest city. Morphed from an abandoned office block into a memorial multi-purpose complex, the Yeltsin Centre is the product of elites and ordinary people responding to conjunctural openings in seemingly inert structures. While highlighting the political openings made possible by improvisation inhabiting the in-between, the paper also underscores the ambiguous nature of this practice and its limits.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Gould ◽  
M. Magdalena Garcia ◽  
Jacob A.C. Remes

Since the 1970s, human ecologists, geographers, Marxian political economists and others have insisted that there is no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. This assertion opened a space not only for exploring socioeconomic conditions that render marginalized populations vulnerable to natural hazards, but also for the formation of a field, the political ecology of hazards. A few political ecologists further interrogated the idea of a natural disaster, asking how different notions of 'the natural' circulate in post-disaster politics and with what effects. This article extends the latter approach by documenting how interconnected categories of 'nature' and 'state' were mutually constituted by narratives of politicians and elites after Chile's 2010 earthquake and tsunami. Drawing on media reports, we identify three distinct pairings of state/nature: (1) nature as manageable and the state as manager; (2) nature as out of control and the state as a police state; and (3) nature as financial opportunity and the state as prudential. Influenced by socioeconomic and historical factors, these state/nature pairings contradicted and reinforced one another in the disaster's aftermath and were deployed to reinforce top-down—rather than democratic—strategies of post-disaster reconstruction. This case offers an unusual approach to disaster politics by tracing how entwined and power-laden categories of state and nature condition the governance of disaster reconstruction processes.Key words: disaster, state, nature, socionature, political ecology of hazards, media disaster, earthquake, Latin America, Chile, 27F


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gintaras Aleknonis ◽  
Renata Matkevičienė

Abstract The research on populism and populist political communication in Lithuania is rather limited, regardless of the fact that populist movements and politicians are influential on national and local political levels; they also receive sufficient support from a significant share of the population. Because the Western European research tradition is concentrated on the challenges of right-wing populism, Lithuanian political scientists distinguish right-wing populism as more significant in comparison to left-wing populism. Although Lithuanian researchers note, that in the balance of the left-right wing populists, Lithuania stands out with the majority of left-wing populists, in comparison to the popularity and number of right-wing populists in neighbouring countries. Despite the interest of scholars in various fields of policy research in Lithuania, there is still a lack of research on populist political communication, and what interest does exist is mostly concentrated on analysis of practical issues within the political arena, e.g. the study of the processes of political elections. The analysis of populist political communication in Lithuania revealed that populism is a relatively oft-mentioned topic in Lithuanian scientific discourse, but in most cases remains on the margins of other research. The theoretical work presents the assumptions based on the analysis of the political situation in Lithuania and examples from other countries. The empirical research of populism is scarce, and in most cases based on content analysis of political documents and media reports.


2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 834-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Armbrust

AbstractThe term “counter-revolution” evokes a straightforward contestation of political claims in a revolutionary situation. But contestation is not a zero-sum game: this side wins; the other side loses, and power remains the same. A revolutionary situation is unpredictable. New formulations of political claims may emerge in a protracted moment of “liminal crisis”—a kind of political ritual with no master of ceremonies capable of ending it. Indeed, the meaning of the political prize itself might be open to reinterpretation. My paper examines counter-revolution through the lens of Taufiq ‘Ukasha, an Egyptian talk show host and former member of the deposed National Democratic Party. Since the Revolution ‘Ukasha has become increasingly prominent as an unacknowledged spokesman for Egypt's Military Council, which assumed executive powers in the wake of the Mubarak regime's collapse. I argue that ‘Ukasha should not be understood simply as afilul—a remnant of the old regime. He is rather a “trickster,” a creature at home in the betwixt-and-between of open-ended liminality, and as such not an instrument of a socially grounded political power. In an environment in which the usual points of social and political orientation are called into question, the significance of a trickster is that he or she can become an object of emulation, an instrument of “schismogenesis”—the creation of a new social formation. A trickster, as a creature of pure liminality, is particularly prone to generating perverted forms of social knowledge. In ‘Ukasha's case, this new social formation is an unprecedented formulation of Egyptian militarism.


Author(s):  
Sara K. Yeo ◽  
Michael A. Xenos ◽  
Dominique Brossard ◽  
Dietram A. Scheufele

We use an experiment with a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population to examine how political partisans consume and process media reports about nanotechnology—a scientific issue that is unfamiliar to most Americans. We manipulate the extent to which participants receive ideological cues contextualizing a news article, and follow their subsequent information seeking about nanotechnology. Our results provide insights into patterns of media use and how media use differs among people with varying political ideologies. When cues clarifying the political stakes of nanotechnology are made available, individuals are willing to read information from countervailing sources. When such cues are lacking, however, individuals avoid incongruent information and opt for headlines from attitude-consistent sources. We explore variations in the circumstances under which ideological selectivity occurs and demonstrate that both confirmation bias and defensive avoidance are heightened under such conditions.


Author(s):  
Tadeusz Miczka

"WE LIVE IN THE WORLD LACKING IDEA ON ITSELF: KRZYSZTOF KIEŚLOWSKI's ART OF FILM" OUR "little stabilization" -- this ironic phrase by Tadeusz Różewicz, the poet and playwright, rightly characterized the low living standards of Poles and the state of apathy of the society in the 1960s. It also reflected well the situation of the Polish culture which, at that time, was put under strong political pressure and, except for very few instances, half- truths and newspeak replaced the clear dichotomy of truth and falsity. However, it finds its strongest expression if seen against the background of the Polish cinema of that time, since the cinema was, so to say, the "light in the eyes" of the Workers' Party activists devoutly building the 'real socialism' state. After the period of the political thaw which, among other things, brought to life artistically courageous works of the 'Polish film school', the...


2018 ◽  
pp. 168-180
Author(s):  
Michał Przeperski

“Special contacts” developed by Norway and Poland during the years 1963–1968 may serve as a unique example of peripheral diplomacy. The sense of Polish initiatives such as the Gomułka Plan consisted not only in relaxing the political tension in Europe, but also on securing the western Polish border, which was not internationally recognized by the West. Hence, initially, political contacts between Oslo and Warsaw served as a way of exercising soft pressure on NATO countries to change their stance. However, they had other interesting aspects, too, such as promotion of Polish culture in Norway. It was 1968 that marked a final date of the “special contact.” It was the anti-Semitic campaign that took place in Poland that year, rather than invasion of Czechoslovakia, that was a final reason for this ending.


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