«Сказочные» карикатуры как инструмент дискредитации в британском политическом дискурсе (на примере The Guardian)

Abstract

The article considers the implementation of the discrediting strategy in the British political discourse of 2021—2023. The material of the study was political cartoons published in the Guardian, which contain iconic and verbal allusions to the plots of British folk and author's fairy tales. A fairy tale is considered as a precedent phenomenon presented with varying degrees of detail: at the level of a precedent name, a precedent situation, a precedent chronotope, a precedent plot, a precedent text. The interaction of iconic and verbal components is considered. It is shown that fairy-tale allusions turn out to be an effective tool for discrediting the portrayed politicians and the transformations they carry out, since they allow the addressee to build a dynamic image of a “man-in-situation” and predict the development of the situation. Precedent situations, in turn, make it possible to endow a character with a certain set of negative personal characteristics. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of readers' comments, on the basis of which it is possible to draw a conclusion about the effectiveness of the impact of the cartoon.