Legacies of Totalitarian Language in the Discourse Culture of the Post-Totalitarian Era - The Case of Eastern Europe, Russia, and China (Hardcover)

This book is unique in its kind. It is the first scholarly work to attempt a comprehensive and fairly detailed look into the lingering legacies of the communist totalitarian modes of thought and expression in the new discourse forms of the post-totalitarian era. The book gives also new and interesting insights into the ways the new, presumably democratically-minded political elites in post-totalitarian Eastern Europe, Russia, and China manipulate language to serve their own political and economic agendas. The book consists of ten discrete discussions, nine case-studies or chapters and an introduction. Chapter 1 discusses patterns of continuity and change in the conceptual apparatus and linguistic habits of political science and sociology practiced in the Czech Republic before and after 1989. Chapter 2 analyzes lingering effects of communist propaganda language in the political discourse and behavior in post-communist Poland. Chapter 3 analyzes the legacy of Soviet semantics in post-Soviet Moldovan politics through the prism of such politically contested words as "democracy," "democratization," and "people." Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the way in which communist patterns of thought and expression manifest themselves in the new political discourse in Romania and Bulgaria, respectively. Chapter 6 examines phenomena of change and continuity in the socio-linguistic and socio-political scene of post-Soviet Latvia. Chapter 7 analyzes the extent to which the language of the post-communist Romanian media differs from the official language of the communist era. Chapter 8 examines the evolution of Russian official discourse since the late eighties with a view of showing "whether or not new phenomena in the evolution of post-Soviet discourse represent new development or just a mutation of the value-orientations of the old Soviet ideological apparatus." Chapter 9 gives a detailed and lucid account of the evolution of both official and non-official discourse in China since the end of the Mao era.

General

Imprint:	Lexington Books
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	May 2011
First published:	May 2011
Editors:	Ernest Andrews
Contributors:	Matthew H. Ciscel • Marius Dragomir • Fengyuan Ji • Ekaterina Levintova • Andrejs Plakans • Marek Skovajsa • Norina Solomon • Magda Stroinska • Cosmina Tanasoiu
Dimensions:	240 x 163 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	230
ISBN-13:	978-0-7391-6465-5
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Semantics (meaning) > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > History > World history > From 1900 > General
LSN:	0-7391-6465-1
Barcode:	9780739164655

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