Genre and Stylistic Characteristics of the Anthems of Socialist Countries

A national anthem is one of the main official symbols of any country, which should ideally remain unchanged. However this demand was often violated, most often in the countries of the socialist camp. In this article we show how the socialist structure of a state affects the texts of national anthems. Based on the key features of the genre proposed by T. V. Shmeleva (1. Communicative goal, 2. The image of the author, 3. The image of the addressee, 4. Dictum, 5. The image of the past, 6. The image of the future, 7. The formal organization of the text), we describe the general characteristics of socialist countries’ anthems. The genre-stylistic analysis shows that socialist anthems of different countries expose important events in an ideological vein and, in fact, are a declaration of "communist ideas" through a poetic text, usually by indirect language means. Bases of socialist hymns often contain battle songs that express several communicative goals, one of them is imperative (a call for struggle), the other is a ritual (glorification of the country). The images of the author and addressee in socialist hymns often coincide, since these hymns are sung on behalf of the people and for him. Dictum (event basis of proposition) of socialist anthems is very rich and diverse. They often contain descriptions of military operations. The texts of such anthems are rich in toponyms, proper names, references to dates and historical events and communist symbols. The perlocutive effect for socialist anthems is especially important, since many of them were created during the period of struggle against invaders, and they were to inspire, to raise them to the battle for liberation of their homeland. The use of vivid key images (images of people, enemies, country, battle) created with the help of various expressive means is an integral feature of socialist anthems.

national anthem, anthems of socialist countries, communist ideology, theory of discursive genres, communicative goal, author, addressee, dictum, past / future factor, formal text organization

1. Бахтин М. М. Проблема речевых жанров // Эстетика словесного творчества. М., 1979.

2. Брунова Е. Г. Мифопоэтика коммунистической пропаганды: лингвокультурный и когнитивный анализ // Политическая лингвистика. 2011. № 2. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/mifopoetika-kommunisticheskoy-propagandy-lingvokulturnyy-i-kognitivnyy-analiz (дата обращения 29.08.2018).

3. Грачев В. Гимны России - зеркало ее духовного состояния. М., 2003.

4. Дмитровский А. З., Михалков С. В. Три гимна в ХХ веке. М., 2003.

5. Золотова В. А. Объективация и динамика концептов в российских гимнах (XIX-XXI вв.): автореф. дис. … канд. филол. наук. Вологда, 2011.

6. Зотеева Т. С. Государственный гимн как жанр политического дискурса // Политическая лингвистика. 2013. № 1. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/gosudarstvennyy-gimn-kak-zhanr-politicheskogo-diskursa

7. Шмелева Т. В. Речевой жанр. Возможности описания и использования в преподавании языка // Russistik. Русистика. Научный журнал актуальных проблем преподавания русского языка. Berlin, 1990. № 2.

8. Литературная энциклопедия: В 12 т. М., 1929. Т. 2.

9. Музыкальная энциклопедия: В 6 т. М., 1973.