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Discursive Identity Construction in Messages to the Regional Parliament. Case of the Republic of Tatarstan

Gabdrakhmanova G.F.,

Sh. Mardzhani Institute of History, Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, Kazan, Russia, medi54375@mail.ru

elibrary_id: 292391 | ORCID: 0000-0002-1796-5234 | RESEARCHER_ID: N-1811-2017

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2021.05.10

Rubric: Russia Today

For citation:

Gabdrakhmanova G.F. Discursive Identity Construction in Messages to the Regional Parliament. Case of the Republic of Tatarstan. – Polis. Political Studies. 2021. No. 5. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2021.05.10

The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Expert Institute for Social Research (No. 19-011-33001).

Abstract

The article raises the topic of identity construction in public speeches of the leaders of regional subjects of the country. How and what identities do they build in discourse? What grounds are used by them for the population to identify with the region? Is the ongoing regional identity policy combined with an identity policy implemented at the national level? These issues are considered on the example of one of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation – the Republic of Tatarstan. Texts of the Messages of Tatarstan republic President R.N. Minnikhanov to State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan were explored using the theory of critical discourse analysis. This allowed using linguistic tools to reveal the symbolic space of public speeches of the regional leader. The purpose of their analysis was to identify tactics and techniques used by the regional leader in constructing the discursive reality of identity – all-Russian, regional, ethnic, religious, professional, gender. The head of Tatarstan speaks most of all about professional identity – about the accumulation of human capital in the territory entrusted to him, and about specific areas of the economy. The construction of all-Russian and regional identities illustrates the complexity of their construction and combination. The President of Tatarstan solves this problem with the idea of the consolidation of the Tatarstan community and the stability of the political system of the republic in the name of national security of Russia. He talks a lot about ethnic issues and the image of the region as a territory open to cooperation and creating favorable conditions for investment. All this becomes a brand of Tatarstan. Thus, the proposed approach takes into account various context-sensitive discursive and social practices of the discourse of the identity of a regional leader.

 

Keywords

identity, identity policy, regionalist discourse, Message, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, R.N. Minnikhanov, State Council.

 Full Text

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