“Internacional’naja literatura”, 2, 1934 - [S017]
Communicative Intention: Emphasising the contrast between two worlds
Utterance Aim: Creation of a flattering image of US and an offensive one of the OTHERS
Concrete Linguistic Means/Tool: Antithetical constructions
Journal Title: "Internacional'naja literatura"
Journal Number: 2
Contexts & Examples: Выставку посетило большое количество рабочих, служащих, интеллигентов, и даже, пишет «Юманите», «любопытствующих и обеспокоенных буржуа».
Edited by Svetlana Slavkova
The post-revolutionary periodical press is characterised by a vivid and explicit manifestation of the ideological conflict between ‘our people’ and ‘the outsiders’. The following is a 1923 quote from the newspaper ‘Pravda’: “A true communist article – not only in newspapers but also in magazines, not only propagandistic but also scientific – is characterised by exceptional clarity and stylistic precision. Our enemies say it is harsh and crude, elementary and vulgar. It is truthful, sincere, bold, frank, ruthless…” (I. Vardin, Pravda, no. 56, 1923 – cited in Vinokur 1923: 110). In the texts of the ‘International Chronicle’ section we find rhetorical figures such as antithetical structures that effectively emphasise the opposition of two worlds (the reactionary and the revolutionary, the bourgeois and the proletarian), underlining their irreconcilability. As the cited example shows, ‘our people’ and those whom one intends to win over to one’s cause (blue-collar and white-collar workers, intellectuals) are pitted against outsiders (‘the curious and concerned bourgeoisie’).