Poster Busting as a Relevant Phenomenon of Protest Communication in Germany

Abstract

The article presents the results of studying of poster vandalism practices as an actual format of protest communication in Germany in the recent decade. This format has not become an independent object of study In Russian linguistics. A review of works on this issue by European linguists is presented. In view of the social significance of the phenomenon of protest and the need to characterize its new genre varieties, against the backdrop of a shortage of works devoted to poster vandalism as a new creative form of dialogue between authorities and citizens, and the growing interest of linguists in visual texts, this study is relevant and topical. The study is aimed at determining the current trends in the poster war in today's Germany, clarifying the classification of types of poster vandalism according to the semiotic resources used, the type of modification of the initial poster, the degree of dialogue of the initial, reactive posters and the surrounding space. This determines the scientific novelty of the study. The material of the study was a sample from the German-speaking segment of the Internet, publications about the activities of creative protest groups, a satirical political party in Germany. Semiotic and contextual analysis, methods of systematization and classification are used. The results show that the new trends are associated primarily with the desire of the subjects of the poster war to legalize it. Two groups of poster war practices are singled out and characterized: the practice of various material distortion of the initial poster itself and the practice of recontextualization, resemiotization of the initial poster without material distortion of its components. The frequency and dialogic nature of the studied communicative practices, the role of the surrounding space in creating the context of reinterpretation are characterized.