Abstract
The article is devoted to the image of Russia modelling through the zoomorphic conceptual metaphor of Russian bear in foreign multimodal texts. The metaphorical image is analyzed retrospectively to identify both common and specific features in different languages and cultures. We also detect a correlation between the positive and negative representation of this image depending on the socio-political context. The authors focus on various ways of interpreting and transforming the image of the Russian bear in multimodal media texts of different genres. The study revealed the prevalence of a negative interpretation of the image of the Russian bear over a positive and neutral one. The most frequent is the use of the metaphor of an aggressive, bloodthirsty Russian bear in relation to the reference situation of military conflicts involving Russia. In political cartoons, such a metaphorical image is often modelled by associative signs of aggression: claws and fangs, and suggests the presence of a “victim” in the iconic part of the multimodal text. Cinematography enhances the mythologization of the metaphorical image in question. At the same time, the connection of the bear with Russia is expressed indirectly: the image of the bear can accompany Russian characters, localize the territory of Russia, due to the presence of a bear in the frame, depict Russians visually similar to bears. The replication of stereotypical metaphorical images creates a stable negative scenario in the recipients’ consciousness, an invariant in relation to a certain conceptual category; therefore, it has an evident manipulative potential.
References
Barasa, M. N., & Opande, I. N. (2017). The use of Animal Metaphors in the Representation of Women in Bukusu and Gusii Proverbs, Kenya. Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, 10(2), 82‑108.
Barthes, R. (1964). Rhétorique de l’image [Rhetoric of the image]. Communications, 4, 40–51. https://doi.org/10.3406/comm.1964.1027 (In French).
Bogoyavlenskaya, Yu., & Buzheninov, A. (2015). Comparative Medialinguistics as a New School Within Modern Comparative Linguistics. Nizhny Novgorod Linguistics University Bulletin, 31, 11–19. (In Russian).
Bordwell, D. (2007). Poetics of Cinema. Routledge.
Buzheninov, A. E. (2017). What does the future union hold? (Relations between V. V. Putine and D. Trump in french political caricature). Contrastive linguistics, 6, 17–23. (In Russian).
Chen, K. W., Phiddian, R., & Stewart, R. (2017). Towards a Discipline of Political Cartoon Studies: Mapping the Field. In J. Milner Davis (Ed.), Satire and Politics (pp. 125–162). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56774-7_5
Chudinov, A. P. (2001). Russia in the metaphorical mirror: Acognitive study of political̆ metaphor (1991‑2000). Ural State Pedagogical University Press. (In Russian).
Dobrosklonskaya, T. G. (2020). Medialinguistics: Theory, Methods, Directions. Publishing Solutions Press. (In Russian).
Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (2002). The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. Basic Books.
Halliday, M. A. K. (2008). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1985). Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Deakin University Press.
Kipina, M. A., Plotnikova, M. V., & Tulaykina, S. S. (2018). Victim of Russian Bear: Image of Ukraine in French Political Cartoons 2014-2018. Contrastive linguistics, 7, 26–32. (In Russian).
Kleshchenko, L. L. (2021). “Russian Bear” in the Spanish-Language Media Discourse. RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics, 12(3), 806–822. https://doi.org/10.22363/2313-2299-2021-12-3-806-822 (In Russian).
Kotelenets, E. A., Zatulovskaya, M. S., & Lavrentieva, M. Yu. (2018). “Russian Bear”—The Dynamics of Changes in the Image of Russia in the World. Nauchnyy Dialog, 7, 164–176. https://doi.org/10.24224/2227-1295-2018-7-164-176 (In Russian).
Kozlov, M., & Shendrikova, S. (2021). The Evolution of the Mythological Image of the Bear in the Culture of the Eastern Slavs. Quaestio Rossica, 9(3), 997–1012. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.3.623 (In Russian).
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality (0 ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203970034
Kress, G., & Hodge, R. (1979). Language as Ideology. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd ed., Ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203619728
Kutafeva, N. V., & Yao, S. (2021). The Image of the Russians in Chinese and Japanese Linguistic Cultures (On the Base of Zoomorphic Metaphor). Vestnik NSU. Series: History and Philology, 20(4), 158‑168. https://doi.org/10.25205/1818-7919-2021-20-4-158-168 (In Russian).
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live by. University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than Cool Reasons: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226470986.001.0001
Laskova, M. V., & Zueva, R. S. (2016). Political Caricature as a Social and Cultural Universal in Modern Political Linguistics. The Humanities and Social Sciences, 1, 71–75. (In Russian).
Latu, M. N., & Tagiltseva, Yu. R. (2023). Correlation Types of Verbal and Non-Verbal Components in Conflict Polycode Texts. The New Philological Bulletin, 1, 269–281. (In Russian).
Lazari, A. de, Riabov, O. V., & Zakowska, M. (2019). The Russian Bear and the Revolution: The Bear Metaphor for Russia in Political Caricatures of 1917–1918. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts, 9(2), 325–345. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu15.2019.206
Lung, I. (2018). Jungle politics: Animal metaphors in international relations. European View, 17(2), 235‑237. https://doi.org/10.1177/1781685818809330
Omsk F.M, Issers, O. S., & Orlova, N. V. (2016). Two Models of Civil Society in Modern Mass-Media: The Linguistic View. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 1, 121–127. https://doi.org/10.20916/1812-3228-2016-1-121-127 (In Russian).
Paramita, D. A. (2018). The Discourse of Satire in Political Cartoons. Quill, 7(5), 457–467.
Rezvukhina, A. I. (2021). “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”: The Representation of the Far East Countries in the Russian Caricatures of 1890-1905. Galactica Media: Journal of Media Studies, 3(3), 174–198. https://doi.org/10.46539/gmd.v3i3.189 (In Russian).
Ryabov, O. V. (2012). “There's a Bear in the Woods”: The Bear Metaphor as a Weapon of the Cold War. In “The Russian Bear”: History, Semiotics, Politics (pp. 175–189). Publishing house New Literary Review.
Ryabov, O. V. (2016). The Bear Metaphor of Russia as a Factor of International Relations. Lingvokulturologiya, 10, 312–330. (In Russian).
Sani, I., Hayati Abdullah, M., Abdullah, F. S., & Ali, A. M. (2012). Political Cartoons as a Vehicle of Setting Social Agenda: The Newspaper Example. Asian Social Science, 8(6), 156–164. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v8n6p156
Shustrova, E. V. (2014). Methods Applied for Analysis of Graphic Metaphor. Pedagogical Education in Russia, 6, 70–80. (In Russian).
Solopova, O. A., Nilsen, D., & Nilsen, A. (2023). The image of Russia through animal metaphors: A diachronic case study of American media discourse. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 27(3), 521–542. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-35048
Sorokin, Y. A., & Tarasov, E. F. (1990). Creolized texts and their communicative function. Optimization of speech impact. n. p. (In Russian).
Trenina, N. G. (2017). Russian Bear: Cultural Stereotypes of Russia as a Rhetorical Device of Foreign Policy. Concept: Philosophy, Religion, Culture, 2(2), 119–126. (In Russian).
Veselova, I. (2023). The role of the bear in the Russian folk tale: Personage, plot type, and behavioural scenarios. In O. Grimm (Ed.), Bear and Human (pp. 1133–1146). Brepols Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TANE-EB.5.134382
Voroshilova, M. B. (2013). Political Creolized Text: Keys to Reading It. Ural State Pedagogical University Press (In Russian).
Żakowska, M. (2020). A bear and a clockmaker: On origins of “Russian bear” stereotype in Switzerland in the second half of the 19th century. Klio - Czasopismo Poświęcone Dziejom Polski i Powszechnym, 55, 199–230. https://doi.org/10.12775/KLIO.2020.041
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.