Scholarly record

NUTRITIONAL AND VESTIMENTARY FEATURES AS MARKERS OF THE OTHER/ALIEN IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN DISCOURSE

Yakushenkov S.N., Romanova A.P.

Abstract

The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the emergence of new political and cultural situation. The society of Internationalism cracked, and old ethnic tensions have gained new forms. All this found its expression in many and varied ethnophaulisms. In this article, the authors try to trace the various slurs constructed with the assistance of the nutritional and vestimentary metaphors. They also make the assumption that the abundance of food metaphors for marking the Other/Alien shows that the food problem is perceived as one of the main in relation of the Russians with other ethnic groups. Food ethnophaulisms can be constructed according to several types: the labeling of the Other by reference to some typical national dishes, or by the designation of his inclination to the special ethnic dish. A special attention is paid to the proximity or remoteness of cuisine of the Alien to the Russian cultural traditions. The greatest number of ethnophaulisms established for the labeling the Ukrainians is undoubtedly the result of modern Russian-Ukrainian contradictions. In addition to food metaphors, vestimentary metaphors are widely used for the labeling the Other in modern Russian discourse.

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