Rhetorical Strategies in Poland’s Women’s Strike: The Diffusion of Semiotic Disobedience Through Protest Banners and Signage
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Published:
Jun 13, 2024
Keywords:
diffusion theory, discourse, semiotic disobedience, protest
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Abstract
This paper presents an exploration of the dynamics of contemporary protest movements in the digital age, focusing specifically on the Women’s Strike protests in Poland. Through its application of sociological diffusion theory, the study investigates the ways in which these movements adopt and adapt protest strategies through the lens of semiotics, language, and cultural references in the context of the Internet's influence. By drawing on various sources, including social media, the paper examines the role of hashtag activism, metaphor, profanity, and cultural tropes in shaping the discourse and symbolic expression of dissent. The globalisation of protest, particularly through the use of English as a lingua franca, is highlighted as a significant aspect of the evolving protest rhetoric in the Polish Women’s Strikes that took place in the years 2016, 2020, and 2021. The analysis reveals a new wave of semiotic disobedience that utilises the linguistic strategies of expressions in English, pejorative language and metaphor to communicate a socially significant message, symbolizing a broader, global political discourse of equality and solidarity that transcends geographical boundaries. This study contributes to the understanding of contemporary protest formations and their diffusion in the digital age, emphasizing the transformative quality that language has in the face of national protest.
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How to Cite
O’Toole, Olga. 2024. “Rhetorical Strategies in Poland’s Women’s Strike: The Diffusion of Semiotic Disobedience Through Protest Banners and Signage”. Journal of Contemporary Philology 7 (1), 15-28. https://doi.org/10.37834/JCP2471015ot.
Section
Linguistics
Copyright © 2014 Blaže Koneski Faculty of Philology, Skopje
Journal of Contemporary Philology (JCP)
Современа филологија
References
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Bendyk E. (2012). Bunt Sieci. Warsaw: Polityka Spółdzielnia Pracy.
Bennett, W. L., and Segerberg, A. (2012). The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics. Information, communication & society, 15 (5): 739–768.
Bonilla, Y., and Rosa, J. (2015). # Ferguson: Digital protest, hashtag ethnography, and the racial politics of social media in the United States. American ethnologist, 42 (1): 4–17.
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2024, January 17). metaphor. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. https://www.britannica.com/art/metaphor
Carney, N. (2016). All lives matter, but so does race: Black lives matter and the evolving role of social media. Humanity & Society, 40 (2): 180–199.
Chabot, S., and Duyvendak, J. W. (2002). Globalization and transnational diffusion between social movements: reconceptualizing the dissemination of the Gandhian repertoire and the "coming out" routine. Theory and Society, 31 (6): 697–740.
Chałupnik, M., and Brookes, G. (2022). Discursive acts of resistance: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of All-Poland Women's Strike's social media. Gender & Language, 16 (3): 308–333.
Cox, J. M. (2017). The source of a movement: Making the case for social media as an informational source using Black Lives Matter. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40 (11): 1847–1854.
DeCook, J. R. (2018). Memes and symbolic violence: #proudboys and the use of memes for propaganda and the construction of collective identity. Learning, Media and Technology, 43 (4): 485–504.
Della Porta, D. (2017). Late neoliberalism and its discontents in the economic crisis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Halliday, M. A. (1985). Systemic background. Systemic perspectives on discourse, 1: 1–15.
Katyal, S. K. (2006). Semiotic disobedience. Washington University Law Review, 84 (3): 489–571.
Kloch, Z. (2022). Hasła Strajku Kobiet i języki wernakularne. Pamiętniki Literackie. Czasopismo kwartalne poświęcone historii i krytyce literatury polskiej, 1: 117–130.
Kövecses, Z. (2002). Cognitive-linguistic comments on metaphor identification. Language and Literature, 11 (1): 74–78.
Lakoff, G., and Johnson, M. (1980). The metaphorical structure of the human conceptual system. Cognitive science, 4 (2): 195–208.
Mann, B. W. (2018). Survival, disability rights, and solidarity: Advancing cyberprotest rhetoric through disability march. Disability Studies Quarterly, 38 (1). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v38i1.5917
Marchlewska, M., Cichocka, A., Panayiotou, O., Castellanos, K., and Batayneh, J. (2018). Populism as identity politics: Perceived in-group disadvantage, collective narcissism, and support for populism. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9 (2): 151–162.
McDuffie, K., and Ames, M. (2021). Archiving affect and activism: Hashtag feminism and structures of feeling in Women's March tweets. First Monday, 26 (2), https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i2.10317
Meisner, B. A. (2020). Are you OK, Boomer? Intensification of ageism and intergenerational tensions on social media amid COVID-19. Leisure Sciences, 1–2: 51–56.
Melitz, J. (2016). English as a global language. In V. Ginsburgh and S. Weber (eds.), The Palgrave handbook of economics and language, 583–615. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mróz, A., and Szulc, M. (2009). Wulgaryzmy wśród studentów a płeć. Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica, 10 (11): 130–143.
Nowak, J. (2016). The good, the bad, and the commons: A critical review of popular discourse on piracy and power during anti-ACTA protests. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 21 (2): 177–194.
Ożóg, K. (2017). Uwagi o języku współczesniej młodzieży – między kodem ograniczonym a kodem rozwiniętym. SŁÓWO Studia Językoznawcze, 8: 163–181.
Pennycook, A. (2009). English and globalization. In J. Maybin and J. Swann (eds), The Routledge Companion to English Studies, 113–121, London: Routledge.
Piekot, T. (2016). Mediacje semiotyczne: słowo i obraz na usługach ideologii (Vol. 8). Wydawnictwo Akademickie Sedno.
Przybylska, R. (2009). O niektórych anglicyzmach w języku młodzieży. In A. Janus-Sitarz (ed.) W trosce o dobrej edukacji, 102–112. Krakow: Universitas.
Richardson, J. E. (2017). Recontextualization and fascist music. In (Eds) L.C.S. Way and S. McKerrell, Music as Multimodal Discourse: Semiotics, Power and Protest, 71–94, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Simmons, B. A., Dobbin, F., and Garrett, G. (2006). Introduction: The international diffusion of liberalism. International Organization, 60 (4): 781–810.
Smith, J. and Johnston, H. (eds.) (2002). Globalization and resistance: Transnational dimensions of social movements. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Szafraniec, K. (2014). W oczekiwaniu na bunt młodych. Rocznik Lubuski, 40 (2a): 57–71.
Van Dijk, T. A. (1996). Discourse, racism and ideology. La Laguna.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing social semiotics. Psychology Press.
Weber, K. M., Dejmanee, T., and Rhode, F. (2018). The 2017 Women’s march on Washington: An analysis of protest-sign messages. International Journal of communication, 12, 2289–2313.
Wiggins, B. E. (2019). The discursive power of memes in digital culture: Ideology, semiotics, and intertextuality. London: Routledge.
Ordo Iuris. (2016). Who we are. Available at: https://en.ordoiuris.pl/who-we-are [Accessed: May 9th, 2024].