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Rozprawy — analizy — studia przypadków

Vol. 12 (2020): Fascinatio studiorum linguarum

Propaganda leaflets of the Second World War period as a specific form of political communication as well as communication between the authorities and the citizens: Analysis of selected textual, pragmatic and stylistic phenomena

  • Marcin Poprawa
DOI
https://doi.org/10.19195/2083-5345.12.7
Submitted
24 June 2021
Published
24-06-2021

Abstract

The object of consideration and analysis are propaganda leaflets and related forms — as a specific form of communication between the rulers and the ruled as well as political, social and civic activity in the underground political discourse of the years 1939–1945. This article describes occupational leaflets as messages which primarily served political and war propaganda, and secondarily — filled in the sphere of the old, pre-war public, media and political discourse in the conditions of the totalitarian occupation order. The analysis avoids a reconstruction of the ideological and axiological background, as well as the relations between the groupings of the underground political scene. It presents the pamphlets from the perspective of the linguistic persuasion means contained in them, which are characteristic of underground political culture of the war and occupation period. The article also reconstructs the strategies of influencing the recipients inscribed in the textual space and graphic arrangement of the pamphlets. These are: visualisation and graphization of the text, facilitating quick reading and memorising the content (an important component of reading activity and whispered propaganda in conditions of fear and repression), as well as content condensation on the level of graphically highlighted slogans and propaganda slogans.