Egy diszkurzív stratégia értelmében felfogott igazságról és hazugságról
On Truth and Lie as Interpreted by a Discursive Strategy - The politics of interpretation of the Balatonõszöd speech

Summary/Abstract: The political debates about Ferenc Gyurcsány’s Balatonõszöd speech attest that the issues triggered by them just cannot be separated from the political interpretations of the very text. The questions of government, empowerment, legitimacy, political promises, truth and lie stem from the problem of recognition of the text itself. Therefore the above mentioned ‘main’ political issues suppose a strategy of interpretation, which reveals the rhetoric of the opposing political standpoints, that is to say, the very rhetoric of the rhetorical event itself. The identity of the Balatonõszöd speech is defined by the strategy of the political interpretations, too. The same text produces different meanings as conflict emerges about the referent of truth and lie. The Prime Minister’s interpretation presupposes a speech that is available as a rhetorical event and this opens up an opportunity to interpret, to pose lie as truth, and this triggers a field of politics as discourse. However, the analysis of these interpretations bumps into a counter-interpretation which excludes any further interpretation in order to maintain lies as lies. The strategy of this latter interpretation is based on a given rhetoric of repeatability, which constructs a new Balatonõszöd speech that does not need any interpretation. Therefore, in this interpretation lies are recognizable as lies. However, any of these strategies fail without a counter-strategy. The literal and the figurative interpretations are both political as they cannot avoid being deconstructed by the other side. As Paul de Man puts it: “The two readings have to engage each other in direct confrontation, for the one reading is precisely the error denounced by the other and has to be undone by it.” As it became the subject of political debates, there is no Balatonõszöd speech in itself: there are only political interpretations which construct several ‘original’ texts.

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