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Last update: Bc. Markéta Karlasová (25.09.2023)
In this module, the students will study the discourse of Russian politics and explore how the Russian people and the Russian political elite make sense of political reality. The main objective of the course is to provide an advanced overview of the discursive strategies, linguistic tools, and symbolic repertoires that are used in Russian politics to construct identities, legitimize and de- legitimize policies, justify and contest political decisions. The thematic outline of the course covers a wide range of fields of political action and forms of political communication. The ambition of the course is to provide a multimodal perspective of the Russian political discourse, so it is not focused exclusively on verbal texts, but also non-verbal modes of discourse (pictures, photos, videos, performances, internet memes, etc.). The course is mostly based on the analysis and interpretation of the texts that informed Russian politics from 1999 till the present. After completing the course, the students - will be familiar with the most important elements of social cognition that inform Russian politics, - will be able to trace them in verbal and non-verbal texts from the Russian public discourse, - will be able to make sense of those texts by relating them to relevant economic, social, and political contexts. |
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Last update: Ivan Fomin, Ph.D. (11.12.2023)
To complete the course, the students are required to present an analytical essay on a topic of their choice in one of the final seminars. The essay will focus on a research question pertaining to Russian political discourse. It will analyze one or several texts (verbal or multimodal), exploring what pieces of context are relevant for understanding those texts, what social meanings appear in them, and how those meanings are conveyed. Length: 2000-2500 words (excluding references) A 1-2 paragraph topic selection memo is due by 23 November. (Please use this form to submit the memo.) Essays are due by 20 December. After the seminar presentation, but no later than 18 January, the essay can optionally be revised and submitted for re-evaluation. |
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Last update: Bc. Markéta Karlasová (25.09.2023)
See readings in the syllabus. |
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Last update: Ivan Fomin, Ph.D. (12.12.2023)
Required reading Reisigl, M. (2017). The Discourse-Historical Approach. In The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies. Taylor & Francis Group. Supplementary reading Dijk, TA van. (2014). Discourse, cognition, society. Discourse studies reader: Main currents in theory and analysis. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Wodak, R., & Forchtner, B. (Eds.). (2017). The Routledge handbook of language and politics. Taylor & Francis Group. Hodge, R., & Kress, G. (1988). Appendix: Key Concepts in a Theory of Social Semiotics. In Social Semiotics (pp. 261–272). Cornell University Press. Slides: PDF
2. Political discourse and the dynamics of sociocultural practices in contemporary Russia (lecture) Supplementary reading Sharafutdinova, G. (2021). MMM for VVP: Building the Modern Media Machine. In G. Sharafutdinova, The Red Mirror (pp. 133–149). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197502938.003.0006 Slides: PDF
3, 4. Ideological Elements of Putinist Discourse (lecture, seminar) Required reading Snegovaya, M., Kimmage, M., & McGlynn, J. (2023). The Ideology of Putinism: Is It Sustainable? https://www.csis.org/analysis/ideology-putinism-it-sustainable Supplementary reading Applebaum, A. (2013). Putinism: The ideology. Strategic Update, 13 (2). https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/Assets/Documents/updates/LSE-IDEAS-Putinism-The-Ideology.pdf Колесников, А. (2022). Научный путинизм. Как в России оформляется официальная идеология. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/88295 Pomeranz, W. E. (2023). The Russian Idea Revisited. Wilson Center. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/russian-idea-revisited Савин, Н. (2023). Почему путинизм (еще) не является идеологией. https://re-russia.net/discussion/0102/ Unity Day Video. Parts 2 and 3. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/cbm3jkvjbcm73ztvmcit1/h?rlkey=7ghlo3kxp54zwimr6od2a1bs1&dl=0 Texts to be analyzed Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 809 of 09.11.2022. (2022). Главы I-II [Chapters I-II]. http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/48502 Putin's speech at Valdai International Discussion Club meeting. (2022). http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69695 [English: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/69695] Unity Day Video. Part 1 (with English Subtitles). https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/aqhg5vwbqnfqqzfsroqa4/h?rlkey=j8q8pe7i031i0x6ikkqxl4w54&dl=0
5, 6. Discursive Construction of National Identities: Russianness in the Kremlin's Discourse (lecture, seminar) Required reading Pertsev, A. (2023). Credo of developed Putinism. How to explain the world «Osnovy rossiiskoi gosudarstvennosti». Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/90247 Malinova, O. (2019). Constructing the “Usable Past”: The Evolution of the Official Historical Narrative in Post-Soviet Russia. In N. Bernsand & B. Törnquist-Plewa (Eds.), Cultural and Political Imaginaries in Putin's Russia (Vol. 11, pp. 85–104). Brill. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvbqs855.8 Ефремова, В. Н. (2014). Государственные праздники как инструменты символической политики: возможности теоретического описания. Символическая политика, (2), 66-79.
Supplementary reading Laruelle, M. (2018). Russian nationalism: Imaginaries, doctrines, and political battlefields. Taylor & Francis Group. Texts to be analyzed Путин, В. (2012). Россия: Национальный вопрос. https://www.ng.ru/politics/2012-01-23/1_national.html Symbols of the state authority in the Russian Federation. Presidential Library. https://www.prlib.ru/en/section/676139
7. Discursive Construction of National Identities: Russianness in the Discourse of the Russian Opposition (lecture, seminar) Required reading Laruelle, M. (2018). Nationalism as a political battlefield: in the streets, for or against the Kremlin. In Russian nationalism: Imaginaries, doctrines, and political battlefields. Taylor & Francis Group. Texts to be analyzed Программа НБП (1994). https://web.archive.org/web/20090307020935/http://nbp-info.com/cat106/index.html Манифест Национального русского освободительного движения "НАРОД". https://www.apn.ru/index.php?newsid=17321 Манифест клуба рассерженных патриотов. https://web.archive.org/web/20231205204407/https://angrypatriots.ru/ Weiss, P. (2023). Нет русских кроме русских. РДК. https://telegra.ph/Net-russkih-krome-russkih-01-15
Supplementary reading McFaul, M. (2020). Putin, Putinism, and the Domestic Determinants of Russian Foreign Policy. International Security, 45 (2), 95–139. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec_a_00390 Texts to be analyzed Address of the President of the Russian Federation. (24 Feb 2022). http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67843 Время покажет. Часть 1. Специальный выпуск от 24.02.2022. (2022). https://rutube.ru/video/b8a18286232a6888dbd13ba9d42b77bb/?r=wd RT News - February 24 2022 (13:00 MSK). [Archived at https://www.dropbox.com/s/je30tmxezjrkwm5/62176c3d85f540457e3c51dc.mp4?dl=1] 9. Discursive Construction of National Identities for Russia's Ethnic Minorities (lecture, seminar) Required reading Yusupova, G., & Ozerova, K. (2021). Cultural Ethnic Initiatives and the (De)Politicization of Ethnicity in Russia. Sociology of Power, 33(2), 147–167. https://doi.org/10.22394/2074-0492-2021-2-147-167
10, 11. Presentations of essays (seminar) |
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Last update: Bc. Markéta Karlasová (25.09.2023)
Highly motivated students with no command of Russian can still take part in the module. They will be provided with alternative assignments and materials. |