Stereotyping of the image of Gerhard Schröder in the German political discourse

Abstract

The article studies the language representation of stereotypes on the material of statements about the political views and actions of the ex-Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schröder concerning the Russia-Ukraine conflict published in Spiegel Online (the first half of 2022). The significance of this work is determined by the relevance of research of stereotypes as a tool for designing and transferring opinions that helps the politicians to form the public attitude to people and events of importance. Studying how the stereotypes are used in the political discourse allows us to comprehend the linguistic mechanism of stereotyping and its evaluating potential. The methodology of this research is based on the theory of stereotypes as cognitive units and their modeling as a structure built of certain features. The methods of component, contextual and stylistic analysis are used. The analysis of the factual material allowed us to single out a number of stereotypes which characterize the person of Gerhard Schröder by active German politicians, as well as a number of features inherent in the stereotypes. The image of the ex-Chancellor is contrasted with the paragon of a ‘good politician’. Although a range of characteristics attributed to this paragon (high moral ground, advantage for the country, dedication to one’s beliefs) is discovered in the politicians’ speeches about Schröder, he is denied to possess such characteristicss as honor, dignity and responsibility. The research singles out such sterotypes as ‘a business person’, ‘an old man’, ‘an outcast’ and ‘a ghost’. Only negative characteristics of the above-mentioned stereotypes are emphasized by the speakers. This gives us ground to state that the use of stereotypes in the texts under consideration is aimed at forming an unfavorable opinion of the described person.