LICEO G. CESARE – M.

VALGIMIGLI

Liceo linguistico

IL LINGUAGGIO NELLA PROPAGANDA

POLITICA

Elaborato d’esame di: Licia Caralli

Classe: VAL

Anno scolastico: 2020/2021

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 INDICE

INTRODUZIONE

Introduction pag. 3

PARAGRAFO 1

Examples of propaganda: Futurism and Giovanni Pascoli pag. 3

PARAGRAFO 2

Examples of criticism about propaganda: George Orwell and Bertold Brecht pag. 4

PARAGRAFO 3

Language in the propaganda nowadays: Donald Trump pag. 4

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The most important device used by the politicians is the language. Even if we can suppose that their
way of speaking is a spontaneous flow of thoughts, the truth is that there is always a strategy that
involves the lexicon and the propaganda used in order to catch the public. The propaganda of the
Nazis can be a clear example of this concept: politicians used slogans and catch phrases in order to
exalt the figure of Adolf Hitler and all his power and potentiality. Thanks to the propaganda of the
Nazism and the Fascism, we can also see how this way of speaking is not only verbal, there's
always a specific physical attitude: politicians wants to inspire trust in the voters, that is why they
must always control themselves, their emotions and their facial expressions and to emphasize their
gestures.

The attitude of the Nazis is not the only significative example of this peculiar use of the language
for political propaganda, other models can be found in the Futurism Movement or also in the figure
of Giovanni Pascoli.

Futurism is a movement born in the first years of the 20th century and it is characterised by a strong
refusal of the culture of the past. The principal representative of this tendency is the Italian Filippo
Tommaso Marinetti, the man who published the "Manifesto of Futurism" in 1909, in which he
wants to exalt the power of the present against the paralysis of the past. In his Manifesto he shows
an overturning of the traditional standards expressed by an excited and energetic language full of
exclamations and very addictive for the readers. As a consequence of this specific use of the
language in their texts, also the way of speaking of the exponents of this group looks really
passionate and declamatory: phrases like "We, the young and strong Futurists!" or "We want to
demolish museum and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian
cowardice" ― from the Manifesto ― were at the centre of their speeches and expressed all their
loath against everything old.

As mentioned before, also the Italian author of the 19th century, Giovanni Pascoli, can provide a
peculiar example of the use of language in the political propaganda. In his speech entitled "La
grande proletaria si è mossa", wrote as a celebration of the war of conquest in Libya, it is
remarkable the way he employs the memory of the strength of the Romans in order to transform this
war in a sort of affirmation of fraternity between human beings. In the lecture he also uses typical
roman slags that have the power to give concrete lineaments to his ideas reinforcing them: an
example can be this key-phrase "E Rumi saranno chiamati. Il che sia augurio buono e promessa
certa. Sì: Romani. Sì: fare e soffrire da forti. E sopra tutto ai popoli che non usano se non la forza,
imporre, come non si può fare altrimenti, mediante la guerra, la pace.".
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This strategic use of the language gains public consent in the public, but also a strong disapproval at
the same time, as we can see thanks to George Orwell, with his two masterpieces "1984" and
"Animal Farm", and the German poet Bertolt Brecht.

At the centre of the two novels of Orwell there's a strong critic against anything repressive or
totalitarian which deals also with the peculiar use of the language of these totalitarian systems. For
example, in "Animal Farm" there's an evident reference to the use of the language in political
propaganda: the protagonist, Napoleon, makes a lot of promises about the future happiness of the
inhabitants of the farm, but the only thing he wants to achieve is in reality the power and the control
over the rest of the people. Napoleon’s real purpose is never expressed in his words, but the writer
wants to underline all the inconsistencies of his propaganda: in the beginning he presents himself as
a saviour, a brother for the rest of the animals, but then, when he obtains what he wants he changes
the initial rules, imposes himself as a tyrant and starts exploiting the others.

So wie George Orwell hat also Bertold Brecht, ein deutscher Dichter, über Propaganda gesprochen.
Ein Beispiel ist das Gedicht "Deutschland 1933", das in 1933 geschrieben wurde, in dem er einen
Stil, der typisch für Hitlers Propaganda ist, benutzt: er schreibt Wörter wie "bleiche Mutter" (Hitler
verwandte diese Entscheidung um über Deutschland unter die Weimarer Republik zu sprechen), der
Ton ist sehr aggressiv und begeistert, aber es gibt auch eine bittere Ironie, weil Brecht Hitlers
Propaganda kritisieren will.

Heutzutage sehen wir eine tiefe Veränderung in der politischen Propaganda: die Politikers sind
immer im Kontakt mit den Wählers, dank den soziale Medien, und sie konzentrieren sich über
Thematiken der Medien mit einer einfachen Sprache, Slogans und einem freundschaftlichen Ton.
Donald Trump kann ein perfekt Beispiel sein, um diese neue Propaganda vorzustellen: er benutzt
die soziale Medien, wie Instagram, Twitter oder Facebook, aber er verbreitet oft "Fake News",
macht über seriöse Probleme lächerlich (wie die Corona-Pandemie oder der Klimawandel) und auch
seine Sprache ist nicht immer passend. Ein Beispiel, der beschreibt, was ich gesagt habe, ist ein
Twitter, in dem der Ex-Präsident behauptet "Der Begriff der Erderwärmung war von den Chinesen
geschaffen, um die USA industriell zu schwächen".

Ein weiteres Problem dieser neuen Propaganda ist auch die Verbreitung von persönlichen Daten:
die neue Politikers wollen direkt den Bürger kennen, um seine Billigung zu erobern, und Trump
kann noch ein Beispiel sein mit dem Skandal Facebook-Cambridge Analytica.

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Zu oft wird die Propaganda nur verwendet um etwas anderes zu verstecken, zum Beispiel im Krieg,
wenn die Staaten entscheiden müssen, wer bekommt was und so weiter: die Politiker schmücken
ihre Reden aus, weil es manchmal keine gültige Begründung gibt. Heinrich Böll, ein deutscher
Schriftsteller, hat über diese Situation in seinem Roman "Einsichten eines Clowns" gesprochen, das
Buch veranschaulicht die Meinungen eines Clowns über Deutschland nach den Zweiten Weltkrieg,
und wir können auch lesen eine Kritik an der Politik dieser Periode: "Im entscheidenden Augenblick
geht es immer primitiv zu, barbarisch. Dann sagt man: »Ihr kriegt halb Polen, wir halb Rumänien
— und bitte, möchten Sie von Schlesien zwei Drittel oder nur die Hälfte? Ihr kriegt vier
Ministersessel, wir kriegen den Huckepackkonzern.«"

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 BIBLIOGRAFIA

Elenco delle opere dalle quali sono tratte le citazioni d’autore:

Heinrich Böll, “Einsichten eines Clowns”, 1963

Bertolt Brecht, “Deutschland 1933”, dalla raccolta poetica “Svendborger Gedichte”,

1939.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, “Manifesto del Futurismo”, “Figaro” di Parigi, 20

febbraio 1909.

Giovanni Pascoli, “La grande proletaria si è mossa”, discorso pronunciato dal poeta
al teatro dei Differenti di Barga il 26 novembre 1911.