Authors
Anna Stanisz-Lubowiecka1; Jan Kubik2; 1 SSEES, University College London, UK; 2 UCL SSEES, UK Discussion
In this paper we are exploring the relationship between mythology and two political ideologies: populism and liberalism in recent Polish political discourse. Researchers of myth have noticed the link between myth and language: Müller (1866) called myth a ‘disease of language’, and Barthes (2012) a ‘language-robbery’. We will be looking for linguistic indicators of mythologisation. We define populism as an ideology, which in its thick form comprises five components: vertical polarisation, antagonism, Manichaeism, volonté general, and horizontal polarisation. As mythologisation is associated with Manichaeism, we hypothesise that there may be elective affinity between populism and myth and mythologisation may be present in other components of populism. We will, however, question the idea proposed by Barthes (2012) that ‘myth is on the right’. Many authors have observed the mythologisation of liberalism (e.g., Adorno and Horkheimer 1972). Using qualitative thematic and rhetorical analysis with elements of CDA, we will look at a few speeches given by Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the right-wing populist PiS party, and Donald Tusk, the de facto leader of the left, since PiS was elected in 2015. We will argue, following Kołakowski, that ‘myth is everywhere’ and what differs the right and left is the content and intensification of mythologisation that at the level of language can be found in imagery (intense metaphorization) or referentiality (‘empirical language’). 
