“Internacional’naja literatura”, 2, 1934 - [S020]
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: Профессор говорил о тяжёлых моральных и материальных условиях, которые ждут интеллигенцию в фашистском государстве, и противопоставил фашизм - орудие репрессий - марксизму - орудию освобождения.
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, one finds rhetorical figures such as antithetical structures that particularly emphasise the opposition of two worlds (the reactionary and the revolutionary, the bourgeois and the proletarian), underlining their irreconcilability. As can be seen from the example given, the Marxist state as the ‘orudie osvobozhdenija‘ [instrument of liberation] of the workers from exploitation, advocated by US, is contrasted with the fascist state as the ‘orudie repressij‘ [instrument of repression] promoted by the OTHERS. The two opposing concepts, ‘osvobozhdenie’ [liberation] and ‘repressii’ [repression], are used to describe the foundations of two state models based on two contrasting ideologies.