The article deals with the problem of the language of consciousness description in war propaganda. Dehumanization is one of the most important methods of creating image of the enemy by propaganda, and since consciousness is an essential feature of human being, the practices of dehumanization include representations of “their” consciousness and its differences from “our” consciousness. The article is original since for the first time representations of consciousness are investigated as a resource for constructing the image of the enemy by war propaganda. The methodology of the analysis is based on Nick Haslam’s concept, according to which the dehumanization of the representatives of the out-group is carried out in two forms: animalistic form by comparing them with animals and mechanistic one by likening them to inanimate mechanisms. Discussions about the genuine humanity occupied a special place in the Cold War “struggle for hearts and minds”, and the article analyzes the representations of various components of the consciousness of “us” and “them” (cognitive, emotional, and volitional) on the materials of Soviet and American cinema. The author points out that such characteristics of the consciousness of “them” as the inability to think critically and creatively, narrow-mindedness, low level of education, lack of warmth in human relations, empathy, self-control and selfwill contributed to the dehumanization of their cinematic images.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation under Grant № 22-18-00305, https://rscf.ru/en/project/22-18-00305/
For citation:
Riabov O.V. “They were weaned from thinking”: representing consciousness and dehumanizing the enemy in the language of the Cold War propaganda, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2023, iss. 4, pp. 163—173.