The Problem of Stigmatization in Modern Newspeak
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The article defines the features of newspeak in the context of social and political philosophy. Based on the methodology of discursive research, constructionism, and postmodernism, modern newspeak is characterized as a quasi-political language, a synthesis of the language of ideology and network language. Speaking subjects use newspeak as a way of stigmatizing the Other. Stigma and stigmatization reinforce the “friend – foe” dichotomy, reflecting a negative attitude towards certain groups of people and influencing individual identities through the language of hostility, enemy image formation, and ideological manipulation. The circulation of newspeak in social media underscores its distinctive features, including virtual anonymity, digital footprints, conspiracy theories, manipulation, groupthink, and the formation of echo chambers. Stigmatization exploits and amplifies the role of stereotypes and prejudices in constructing the image of the Other based on specific linguistic constructions and subject alienation. Newspeak, as a quasi-political language, intertwines the political and non-political, political and historical. Mutual stigmatization of speaking subjects, within the context of historiophilosophical and civilizational disputes about Russia’s future, can be conceptualized through the opposition of “dehumanization vs. Messianism”.
Author: Anna M. Oleshkova
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4401825136