Narracje i strategie argumentacyjne w dyskursie IV RP jako narzędzia wyznaczania granic wspólnot w polskim społeczeństwie
Narratives and Argumentation Strategies in the Discourse of the 4 th Republic as an Instrument for Demarking Borders in Polish Society

Summary/Abstract: This article concerns discourse in the 4th Republic and its role in creating the divisions and cleavages of Polish society. The author analyzes the argumentation strategies used by the press supporting the government and its so-called “good change” (the weeklies Sieci and Uważam Rze, which were published in the years 2012–2017). He concentrates on selected rhetorical practices such as labeling, categorization, and discrimination, and determines that the center of the argumentation strategy of the weeklies analyzed is a discursively constructed division between the “elites” and the “masses” (“ordinary people”). This type of strategy allows the building of a Me-Them dichotomy, which serves not only to strengthen divisions but also to de-legitimize the social space of the 3 rd Republic and give legitimacy to the “good change” of the 4 th Republic. These activities are exemplified by the manner in which the writers in opinion-forming weeklies describe and explain selected topics and events, such as the Round Table Talks or the migration crisis. The author finds that in the argumentation strategies analyzed, the “nation” is understood as an exclusive community defined from an essentialist perspective. He relates these and other findings to the problem of the new, simplified form of political rivalry and contemporary election campaigns.

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