Coping with Stalinist panegyrics: A semantic and pragmatic analysis of a Czech text

This paper discusses a significant text genre in totalitarian societies: panegyrics of the leader. In countries under Stalinist rule, the output of panegyric texts reached immeasurable proportions. Probably due to their uniformity, few attempts have been made to analyse the single panegyric text. Attempting to identify the specific features of a given text, this paper analyses a set of particular features related to intra-textual semantic connexity, intertextuality and intentionality in a Czech sample from 1953. How the analysed sample disturbs Grice’s communicative maxims will be demonstrated. Structuration theory is used to explain why the panegyrics was produced. It is concluded that Stalinist panegyrics dangerously constricts the possibilities for social actions and for gaining knowledge. Additionally, the case demonstrates the need for a genuinely historical and pragmatic communicative theory, and proves the necessity of keeping the concepts of genre and text type apart.