DUALITY OF SATIRE IN BRITISH MEDIA DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of duality of satire in the British media discourse. The main attention is focused on the linguistic and pragmatic features of satire, its duality and the ways in which historical and contemporary contexts are used to form social and political criticism. Using the methods of qualitative, contextual-interpretive analysis and continuous sampling, the authors of the study analyze textual materials from the British satirical magazine Private Eye for 2021–2022, based on P. Simpson’s theory of the structure of satirical discourse. The analysis of selected satirical texts has shown that the discourse of satire is characterized by an expressive duality that arose from the overlapping and interaction between the real and mythical dimensions, which in turn are projections of the main structural elements of satire - the prime and the dialectical element, connected by such stylistic and linguistic means as wordplay and puns to ensure the coherence of the satirical text. The study found that the real dimension is activated by the echo utterances of real events or situations at the local, regional, national or international scales that prompted satirical criticism. At the same time, the mythical dimension is realized by use of well-known precedent texts, including works of Wlliam Shakespeare, folklore, lullabies, fables, biblical stories, etc. According to the analysis, such precedent texts allow the satirist to transfer certain features of the protagonists of these texts to the objects of satirical criticism, thus expanding the range of implications that the recipient of the satire can deduce. The article reveals that due to the high level of recognition of these precedent texts representing the mythical dimension of satire, the satirist can create a stronger cognitive effect of hidden satirical criticism in British media discourse.