Paradoxes of the 30s Soviet Discourse: From the Biblical Metaphor to the Ideology Representation of the Leader
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/pytlit2021.104.126Keywords:
Georgian Soviet literature, Shalva Dadiani, “Blizzard”, biblical metaphors, the Pillar of Light, Soviet discourse, ideology representation of the leaderAbstract
The study first raised the question of using biblical metaphors in the process of establishing Soviet ideology and creating a cult of the leader of the Soviet people. Authors tested the story “Blizzard” by Georgian writer Shalva Dadiani in the context of Georgian cultural mentality and studied the ideology function of the biblical metaphor “The Pillar of Light” in the discourse of Georgian Soviet prose.
An analysis of the text proved that in Georgian culture, the basic concepts-metaphors of Christian Doctrine were an effective weapon of Soviet propaganda. At Bible the “The Pillar of Fire”, “The Pillar of Cloud” and “The Pillar of Light” are theophany – the manifestations of the presence of the God. The biblical metaphor transformed into an ideology representation of the Soviet Leader and in the text of the Shalva Dadiani this is an allegory of the New Messiah – Stalin.
As a result, with the help of biblical metaphors were formed a new ideological concept (the Soviet leader is the Messiah of the New Doctrine) and the new metaphorical model of Soviet reality.
Thus, by transferring the basic values of the traditional Christian conceptual sphere to the Soviet ideological one, a new ideological concept is created and a new metaphorical model of Soviet reality is formed. This achieved a double goal: the inviolability of the Soviet ideologeme was confirmed on an emotional level, and at the same time the respect and trust in the Church that had been carried for many generations was undermined – it was transferred to the new teaching and its adherents.
References
Arutiunova, N. (1990). Metafora i diskurs [Metaphor and discourse]. In: Teoriia metafory. Moscow : Progress, pp. 5–32. (in Russian).
Barthes, R. (1996). Mifologii [Mythologies]. Translated from the French by S. Zenkin. Moscow : Izdatel'stvo imeni Sabashnikovykh, 312 p. (in Russian).
Bakhtin, M. (1975). Voprosy literatury i estetiki [Questions of literature and aesthetics]. Moscow : Khudozhestvennaia literatura, pp. 72–233. (in Russian).
Klushina, N. (2014). Teoriia ideologem [The theory of ideologeme]. Politicheskaia lingvistika, no. 4 (50), pp. 54–58. (in Russian).
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (2004). Metafory, kotorymi my zhivem [Metaphors We Live By]. Translated from the English by A. Baranov and A. Morozova. Moscow : Editorial URSS, 256 p. (in Russian).
Losski, V. (1991). Ocherk misticheskogo bogosloviia Vostochnoi tserkvi. Dogmaticheskoe bogoslovie [Essay on the mystical theology of the Eastern Church. Dogmatic theology]. Moscow : Tsentr „SEI”, 289 p. (in Russian).
Malysheva, E. (2009). Ideologema kak lingvokognitivnyi fenomen: opredelenie i klassifikatsiia [Ideologeme as a lingo-cognitive phenomenon: definition and classification]. Politicheskaia lingvistika, no. 4 (30), pp. 32–40. (in Russian).
Ozoliņš, E. (2019). Kakim ia pomniu Stalina [How do I remember Stalin]. Daugava, no. 4, pp. 128–142. (in Russian). URL: http://istmat.info/node/48167 (accessed: 7 March 2019).
Ortega y Gasset, J. (1991). Dve glavnye metafory [Two Great Metaphors]. Translated from the Spanish by B. Dubin. In: Ortega y Gasset, J. Estetika. Filosofiia kul'tury. Moscow : Iskusstvo, pp. 203–218. (in Russian).
Ryken, L., Wilhoit, J. and Longman, T. (eds) (2005). Slovar’ bibleiskikh obrazov [Dictionary of Biblical Imagery]. Saint Petersburg : Bibliia dlia vsekh, 1424 p. (in Russian).
Rodionova, I. (comp.) (2003). Sovetskaia ideologiia v 30-ye gody XX veka [Soviet ideology in the 30s of the XX century]. Moscow : Moskovskii gosudarstvennyi institut elektroniki i matematiki, 30 p. (in Russian).
Chudinov, A. (2001). Rossiia v metaforicheskom zerkale: kognitivnoe issledovanie politicheskoi metafory (1991–2000) [Russia in a metaphorical mirror: a cognitive study of political metaphor (1991–2000)]. Yekaterinburg : Ural'skii gosudarstvennyi pedagogicheskii universitet, 238 p. (in Russian).
Dadiani, Sh. (1958). Rcheuli tkhzulebebi [Selected works]. Vol. I. Tbilisi : Sabch’ota Sakartvelo, pp. 9–12. (in Georgian).
Gonjilashvili, N. (2014). Natlis svet’is paradigma “vepkxistq’aosanshi” (dzveli kartuli mts’erlobis tkhzulebebata k’ont’ekst’shi) [The Pillar of Light Paradigm in “The Knight in the Panter’s Skin” (in the Context of the Study of Ancient Georgian Literature]. P. I. Literary Researches, vol. XXXV, pp. 9–32. (in Georgian).
Modebadze, I. and Tsitsishvili, T. (2019). Xelisuplebis mts’vervalze: 1930 ani ts’lebis sabch’ota disk’ursis mivits’q’ebuli purtslebi [At the Apex of the Powers: Forgotten Pages of the Soviet Discourse of 1930s]. In: Stalinis ideologema da mitologema kartul sabch’ota da emigrant’ul lit’erat’urashi [Stalin’s Ideologeme and Mythologeme in Georgian Literature of the Soviet Times and Georgian Emigrant Literature]. Vol. II. Tbilisi : Mts’ignobari, pp. 94–137. (in Georgian).
Tsitsishvili, T. and Modebadze, I. (2019). Stalinuri epokis poet’uri diskursis alegoriebi [Allegories of Poetic Discourse of Stalin Epoch]. In: Stalinis ideologema da mitologema kartul sabch’ota da emigrant’ul lit’erat’urashi [Stalin’s Ideologeme and Mythologeme in Georgian Literature of the Soviet Times and Georgian Emigrant Literature]. Vol. II. Tbilisi : Mts’ignobari, pp. 137–148. (in Georgian).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Irine Modebadze and Tamar Tsitsishvili
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
