Transformation of the Image-Concept of Russia in British Political Media Discourse: A Diachronic Aspect

Abstract

The images of states as special mental models are created in mass media discourse with its powerful persuasive capacity. The image of one and the same state can be different. This article focuses on the mechanisms of such a change of the image of New Russia in British mass media discourse on the basis of a comparative analysis of the linguistic ways of surfacing the nucleus of the concept “Russia” and its three basic layers - metaphorical, evaluative, and etnocultural associative - in the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991-1993) and in the modern one (2013-2018). The relevance of this work is due to the growing interest of the British media in our country and the need to study the dynamics of verbalization of the conceptual, figurative, evaluative and associative components of the concept “Russia” in British media discourse over the past 30 years. The results of the study confirmed our hypothesis that two different images of New Russia were created in British political media discourse in the two periods: one in 1991-1993 after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the other in 2013-2018 when British-Russian relations sharply escalated. In 1991, British journalists still used phrases such as former Soviet Union, Russian-Soviet state, Russian Empire to designate our state. Currently, there are such nominations as the Russian State, the Kremlin, Putin’s Russia. The metaphorical image of Russia has changed from a connotation associated with the concept of a weak, sick, newborn or defeated country to an offensive image of an enemy, a puppeteer, an active participant in military games, or aggressive animals, such as a bear, gorilla or octopus. The evaluative layer of the image-concept of Russia in the 1990s was represented by epithet utterances with some positive connotations associated with the hope of restoration and friendliness on her part. Currently, almost no positive connotations are found. The associative layer of the image-concept of Russia in the 1990s was represented in the British press by former superpower tokens opposing weak Russia to the powerful Soviet Union. Russia, as the successor to the USSR, was associated with the empire, with the green color of rebirth, with the East and mystery. However, objective journalists are sure that Russia is not an enemy, that cooperation between the two countries is mutually beneficial, given the positive historical experience of the interaction of the two great cultures. The analysis scheme proposed in the article can be used to study the transformation of images of other states. The article can be used in training courses for linguists, journalists and politicians.