Czech Classified Advertising under Stalinism: Transformation of a Genre

Abstract

To study how the genre of classified ads transformed during Stalinism in Czechoslovakia an analysis was carried out on a sample of classified ads that appeared in the Czech daily Lidová demokracie in the tenth week of each year from 1948 to 1953. The ads were analyzed as representations of typified social practices and as discourse structure types. The analysis shows that advertisers' purpose of classified advertising remained relatively stable, presumably, the reason that classified ads continue as a distinct genre. Layout, average length, and use of abbreviations and of non-standard linguistic variants also remained relatively stable. In most other aspects, however, classified ads changed and became marginal in contemporary newspapers. The number of ads significantly declined, as did the variety of subgenres. The number and the variety of goods offered for exchange were reduced. The discursive structures of the ads became less linguistically elaborate and more uniform. Despite those transformations, classified ads may serve as a source for understanding how people perceived contemporary social changes. The ads exemplify a very weak pluralism. The continuity of classified ads as a distinct genre may have helped people to engage in self-initiated public exchange of goods and to maintain identities as interlocutors in trade.