The Discourse of Conflict and Crisis: Poland’s Political Rhetoric in the European Perspective

Description

This book explores the linguistic patterns of conflict, crisis and threat generation in Polish political rhetoric that have been at the heart of state-level policies since the Law and Justice Party came to power in October 2015. Analysing a vast corpus of speeches, statements and remarks by prominent Law and Justice Party politicians, this book sheds light on internal parliamentary and presidential discourse against opponents of the government, before widening its lens to Poland’s strained relations with the EU regarding refugee distribution and immigration. Drawing on theories from contemporary critical discourse studies and critical-cognitive pragmatics, the book shows how the crisis, conflict and threat elements in these discourses produce public coercion and strengthen the Party’s leadership. Piotr Cap extends his argument further to examine discursive examples from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Italy and the UK, highlighting the correlation between the Law and Justice Party and broader socio-political and rhetorical trends in contemporary Europe. The result is an authoritative panorama of the mutual dependencies and shared discursive strategies of European right-wing groups. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Illustrations Introduction Chapter 1: “Do What I Say, Unless . . .”: Political Leadership, Coercion, and Threat Construction Chapter 2: Polish Contexts: Threat-Based Communication and Crisis Management in Communist and Post-Communist Poland Chapter 3: Enemy at Home: “Total Opposition,” “Post-Communist Elites,” and “Keepers of the Round Table Order” Chapter 4: The “Worst Sort of Poles” Narrative Chapter 5: European Union and the Discourse of National Sovereignty Chapter 6: Oppressed by Neighbors: Germany, Russia, and Nord Stream 2 Notes Bibliography Index