| Abstract [eng] |
The aim of this thesis is to analyze the specifics of populist mobilization and discursive manifestations in the case of “The Great Family Defence March”. The literature review addresses the evasive nature of the term “populism” and allows to identify the basic semantic core of this concept. For the case analysis two theoretical approaches are combined – Ernesto Laclau’s discursive theory of populism and the semiotic tools designated to analyze the composition and dynamics of the collective actant. The framework based on Laclau’s works concentrates on different social demands and how their sequence defines two main directions of the movement: fighting for traditional family values and protesting against the pandemic measures introduced by the Lithuanian government. Meanwhile, Fontanille’s recently developed tools designed for the semiotic analysis of collective actant help to understand how different ideologically neutral social groups are unified into one integral actant “the people”. The unification of “the people” is the result of legitimization through mythification procedures. “The Great Family Defence March” uses myths-prototypes that constitute populist “the people” as a national community. Using Fontanille’s schema of the transformations of collective actant, one can identify the key role of passions in the trajectory of the populist mobilization. The realization of the passions has a dismantling effect on the unity of “the people” as the violence contradicts value system of “The Great Family Defence March”. |
