Russia in Ukrainian internet memes (war period 2022-2023)

Helena Pociechina

University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn


Abstract

This paper contains a linguistic analysis of visual messages published on the Internet (mainly on Ukrainian websites) in the period from the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 to mid-2023. The content of the messages reflects current war events in the form of comments satirical, less often humorous, within the framework of political discourse. Discourse in the context of this study is understood as a set of speech activities in the form of a dialogue or monologue, realizing a specific communicative goal under specific conditions or circumstances. During the description of the empirical material, the following components of the war discourse will be indicated: participants of the discourse, time and space, goals and strategies of action, values cultivated by the participants, which are the subject of reminiscence references, precedent texts and genre-specific linguistic units and constructions. The article consists of three parts. The first part contains the definition of an Internet meme, as well as the characteristics of this genre, including stylistic and media aspects. In the second part, I will present the structure of the war discourse, partly referring to the protest discourse. In the third part, I analyzed the empirical material, focusing on linguistic means and their historical, political and ideological characteristics. Material for the study was collected from February 2022 to June 2023 on Ukrainian websites, on YouTube, and on Telegram communicator blogs.


Keywords:

language play, political linguistics, anti-war discourse, satire, pun, carnivalization


Bachtin, M. M. (1990), François Rabelais i narodnaja kul’tura srednevekov’ja i Renessansa. Moskva [Бахтин, М. М. (1990), Франсуа Рабле и народная культура средневековья и Ренессанса. Москва.]   Google Scholar

Bendyk, E. (2022), Ukraina, szukanie wyjścia z wojny, [w:] https://antymatrix.blog.polityka. pl/022/03/22/ukraina-szukanie-wyjscia-z-wojny/ 2022-03-22 (accessed: 04.01.2024).   Google Scholar

Berežnoj, V. A. (2014), Internet-mem i anekdot: k postanovke problemy, [in:] Visnyk Zaporiz’koho natsional’noho universytetu. Filolohichni nauky 1 , 1 35-144. [ Бережной В . А . ( 2014), Интернет-мем и анекдот: к постановке проблемы, [in:] Вісник Запорізького національного університету. Філологічні науки 1, 135-144.]   Google Scholar

Blackmore, S. (1999), Maszyna memowa. Poznań.   Google Scholar

Dawkins, R. (1996), Samolubny gen. Warszawa.   Google Scholar

Dijk, T. A. van (2001), Discourse, ideology and context, [in:] Folia Linguistica XXX (1-2), 11-40.   Google Scholar

Grabias, S. (2004), Język w zachowaniach społecznych. Lublin.   Google Scholar

Gusejnov, G. (2014) «Ukropy» i «valenki» – ritorika vojny, [Гусейнов, Г. (2014) «Укропы» и «валенки» – риторика войны,] [in:] https://rus.azatutyun.am/a/ukropy-valenki-leksika-voiny/26591776.html (accessed: 03.01.2024).   Google Scholar

Halliday, M. A. K. (1998), The notion of „context“ in language education, [in:] Ghadessy, M. (ed.), Text and Context in Functional Linguistics. Amsterdam | Philadelphia, 1-25.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Hasan, R. (2004), Analysing Discursive Variation, [in:] Young, L. | Harrison, C. (eds.), Systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis. London | New York, 15-53.   Google Scholar

Kiklewicz, A. (2022), Dyskurs protestu: kategoryzacja i kierunki badań (przy szczególnym uwzględnieniu białoruskich protestów antyrządowych 2020 roku), [w:] Socjolingwistyka XXXVI, 7-27.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Kiklewicz, A. | Mazurkiewicz-Sułkowska, J. | Pociechina, H. (2021), Menschen zu sein… Soziokulturelle und semiotische Aspekte der Protestdiskurse nach den Präsidentschaftswahlen in Belarus im Jahr 2020, [in:] Zeitschrift für Slawistik 66 (4), 1-25.
Crossref   Google Scholar

Kiklewicz, A. | Pociechina, H. (2021), Jazykovaja kreativnost’ protestnych diskursov v Belorussii posle prezidentskich vyborov 2020 goda, [w:] Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski XII (1), 269-304
Crossref   Google Scholar

Kovalenko, A. (2022), Fenomen Černobaevki kak on est’, [Коваленко, А. (2022), Феномен Чернобаевки как он есть,] [in:] https://24tv.ua/ru/fenomen-chernobaevki-on-est-bez-magii-fejsbuka_n1925045 (accessed: 04.01.2024).   Google Scholar

Kultyševa, I. V. | Žuravskaja, O. S. (2016), Kategorija komičeskogo v reprezentacii obraza političeskogo vraga (na primere političeskoj karikatury), [in:] Političeskaja lingvistika 4 (58), 114-122. [Култышева, И. В. | Журавская, О. С. (2016), Категория комического в репрезента¬ции образа политического врага (на примере политической карикатуры), [in:] Политическая лингвистика 4 (58), 114-122.]
Crossref   Google Scholar

Makarowska, O. (2020), Leksičeskie innovacii v memosfere: nazvanija memnych žanrov, [in:] Studia Rossica Posnaniensia 45 (2), 205-219. [Makarowska, O. (2020), Лексические инновации в мемосфере: названия мемных жанров, [in:] Studia Rossica Posnaniensia 45 (2), 205-219.]
Crossref   Google Scholar

Sannikov, V. Z. (1999), Russkij jazyk v zerkale jazykovoy igry. Moskva. [Санников, В. З. (1999), Русский язык в зеркале языковой игры. Москва.]   Google Scholar

Savickaja, T. E. (2018), Kul’tura ėlektronnoj ėry. Moskva. [Савицкая, Т. Е. (2018), Культура электронной эры. Москва.]   Google Scholar

Semotjuk, O. (2022), Jumor – eto oružie ukraincev na vojne, [Семотюк, О. (2022), Юмор – это оружие украинцев на войне,] [in:] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5xoSa9nd9Q (accessed: 02.01.2024).
Crossref   Google Scholar

Sładkiewicz, Ż. (2013), Političeskij fel’eton v svete teorii rečevogo vozdejstviya. Gdańsk. [Слад¬кевич, Ж. (2013), Политический фельетон в свете теории речевого воздействия. Гданьск.]   Google Scholar

Vovk, K. (2023), Čomu my smiemosja, koly treba plakaty: fenomen ukrayins’koho humoru, [Вовк, К. (2023), Чому ми сміємося, коли треба плакати: феномен українського гумору,] [in:] https:// svidomi.in.ua/page/chomu-my-smiiemosia-koly-treba-plakaty-fenomen-ukrainskoho-humoru (accessed: 03.01.2024).   Google Scholar

Wężowicz-Ziółkowska, D. (2014), Jednostki pamięci kulturowej. Próba kulturoznawczej redefinicji i interpretacji hipotezy memetycznej, [w:] Teksty z Ulicy. Zeszyt memetyczny 15, 11-26.   Google Scholar


Published
2024-12-22

Cited by

Pociechina, H. (2024). Russia in Ukrainian internet memes (war period 2022-2023). Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski, 15(2), 253–274. https://doi.org/10.31648/pw.10876

Helena Pociechina 
University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn