Facebook Posts as Performatives in Bulgarian Political Life: A Sociolinguistic Investigation
Facebook Posts as Performatives in Bulgarian Political Life: A Sociolinguistic Investigation

Summary/Abstract: The paper provides a snapshot of how the Bulgarian political public interprets the notion of ‘political action’. The paper argues there are two basic notions (‘performing’ and ‘performativity’) which are fundamental to present-day interpretations of ‘political action’, and that these two notions need to be approached through quantitative analysis of actual respondents’ interpretations. The paper addresses this analytical niche and in doing so draws on a previous sociolinguistic study which strongly suggests that the modern genre of the Facebook post has special social and political significance in pro-active Bulgarian political life. The paper systematizes and discusses the results from a questionnaire-based study on Bulgarian recipients’ expectations about the communicative and political effect of the Facebook post. The results of the study reveal that Bulgarian political audiences perceive the Facebook post not simply as a genre in Bulgarian political discourse but, crucially, as a vehicle for actual political performance in present-day Bulgarian political life.

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