The image of “Alien” at the Post-Soviet space

Romanova A.P.

Annotation

The attitude to the Alien and the main characteristics of its image are important markers of the level of social organization and condition of any society. The Alien image was included not only into binary opposition “Own - Alien”, it builds the system of images “Own - Different - Alien - Enemy - Monster”. The system may be a coordinate axis of the analysis of cultural and socio-political landscape of the Era, the country as a whole or a particular region. The objective of the article is to identify the nature of the Alien image transformation in the proposed axis during the transition period from the Soviet to Post-Soviet society. The main methodology of the research is a comparative analysis of the main characteristics of the Alien image in the Post-Soviet public sphere and Post-Soviet Media. The main parameters and the volumes of the “Own - Monster” image scale are changed in the Post-Soviet space; the ideological cleavage between “the Own” and «the Alien» is replaced by the ethnic and religious split. The ways and mechanisms of “the Own” image transformation that characterizes the Soviet ideology into the Post-Sociolist “Alien” through dehumanization and demonization are analyzed in the article. In the process of demonization, relying on unconscious archaic archetypes, the “Alien” image like Monster is forming. In such a case, all basic cultural markers of “the Alien” (vestimentary and alimentary differences, language, appearance, religious affiliation, etc.) are brought to grotesque in order to justify the negative attitude towards the former “Own” image and now “the Alien” - a migrant, a guest worker and a citizen of a neighboring state.

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