‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself’: War-related humour in the
European linguistic landscape

k 2022

‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself’: War-related humour in the European linguistic landscape

CHOVANEC, Jan

Basic information

Original name

‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself’: War-related humour in the European linguistic landscape

Authors

CHOVANEC, Jan

Edition

32nd Annual Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies, 29 June – 2 July 2022 in Bertinoro, Italy, 2022

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60203 Linguistics

Country of publisher

Italy

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

Conference web page Conference programme

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords (in Czech)

humor; intertextualita; diskurz; sociální média; mediální jazyk; stylistika; pragmatika

Keywords in English

humour; intertextuality; discourse; social media; media language; stylistics; pragmatics

Abstract

V originále

The presentation deals with the humorous use of originally non-humorous utterances in the context of public anti-war protests. Adopting a sociolinguistics perspective grounded in the social semiotic theory of linguistic landscape, it shows how a statement originally made by a Ukrainian soldier in February 2022 became globally known as an anti-war slogan, turning into a viral memetic phrase that became subject to extensive recontextualization and resemioticization. The presentation documents a broad range of cultural artefacts, including street art, public signs, postage stamps and even T-shirts, that became the physical carriers of this slogan in the public space, circulating it in multiple language versions (e.g., Russian, English and Czech). While such anti-war protest slogans and acts of military defiance are known from many other historical situations, what appears new in this case is the widespread re-use of this slogan for humorous purposes. Significantly, this involves not only the slogan’s creative appropriation by members of the public (e.g. meme creators, street artists, social media users), its marketization (e.g. its appearance on various products and the filing of an EU trademark application) but also its intentional recycling in institutional contexts (e.g. by the Ukrainian post). The presentation suggests that we might, among other, be witnessing the emergence of a new phenomenon, whereby various war-related content (e.g. utterances or video-footage) is re-used in an entertaining manner during wartime as part of one of the warring sides’ official public communication campaign.

Links

MUNI/A/1479/2021, interní kód MU

Name: Paradigms, strategies and developments - English linguistics and translation II

Investor: Masaryk University

MUNI/FF-DEAN/1766/2021, interní kód MU

Name: Language, humour and communication: Sociopragmatic perspectives

Investor: Masaryk University, FA Dean's program

Citovat

CHOVANEC, Jan. ‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself’: War-related humour in the European linguistic landscape. In 32nd Annual Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies, 29 June – 2 July 2022 in Bertinoro, Italy. 2022.

@proceedings{2246551,
   author = {Chovanec, Jan},
   booktitle = {32nd Annual Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies, 29 June – 2 July 2022 in Bertinoro, Italy},
   keywords = {humour; intertextuality; discourse; social media; media language; stylistics; pragmatics},
   language = {eng},
   title = {‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself’: War-related humour in the European linguistic landscape},
   url = {https://eventi.unibo.it/ishs-2022},
   year = {2022}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 2246551
AU  - Chovanec, Jan
PY  - 2022
TI  - ‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself’: War-related humour in the European linguistic landscape
KW  - humour
KW  - intertextuality
KW  - discourse
KW  - social media
KW  - media language
KW  - stylistics
KW  - pragmatics
UR  - https://eventi.unibo.it/ishs-2022
N2  - The presentation deals with the humorous use of originally non-humorous utterances in the context of public anti-war protests. Adopting a sociolinguistics perspective grounded in the social semiotic theory of linguistic landscape, it shows how a statement originally made by a Ukrainian soldier in February 2022 became globally known as an anti-war slogan, turning into a viral memetic phrase that became subject to extensive recontextualization and resemioticization. The presentation documents a broad range of cultural artefacts, including street art, public signs, postage stamps and even T-shirts, that became the physical carriers of this slogan in the public space, circulating it in multiple language versions (e.g., Russian, English and Czech). While such anti-war protest slogans and acts of military defiance are known from many other historical situations, what appears new in this case is the widespread re-use of this slogan for humorous purposes. Significantly, this involves not only the slogan’s creative appropriation by members of the public (e.g. meme creators, street artists, social media users), its marketization (e.g. its appearance on various products and the filing of an EU trademark application) but also its intentional recycling in institutional contexts (e.g. by the Ukrainian post). The presentation suggests that we might, among other, be witnessing the emergence of a new phenomenon, whereby various war-related content (e.g. utterances or video-footage) is re-used in an entertaining manner during wartime as part of one of the warring sides’ official public communication campaign.
ER  -

CHOVANEC, Jan. ‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself’: War-related humour in the European linguistic landscape. In \textit{32nd Annual Conference of the International Society for Humor Studies, 29 June – 2 July 2022 in Bertinoro, Italy}. 2022.

Detailed Information on Publication Record