Not Easily Embarrassed: Political Metaphor and the Cooperative Construction of Political Identity in the Russian State Duma

Abstract

Abstract

Invective is a common exercise in political debates on the floors of parliaments. Examined in context, however, mutual denunciations hurled at each other across the floor by political antagonists appear to present welcome opportunities to define the self rather than occasions for the experience of the personal awkwardness or self-consciousness that defines embarrassment. I examine some striking metaphors used to derogate political figures in the State Duma and the responses of the targets to show how antagonists cooperate by exchanging insults to construct multiple political selves that present choice to publics presupposed to be watching even when fraud deprives those publics of any prospect to control the composition of the legislature by their choices when voting.

Keywords: political metaphor, insults, political identity, Russian politics, State Duma

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Bibliography: Anderson, Jr., Richard D.: Not Easily Embarrassed: Political Metaphor and the Cooperative Construction of Political Identity in the Russian State Duma, PCS, 1-2-2015, pp. 9-24.
https://doi.org/10.3224/pcs.v6i1-2.02