Les stratégies linguistiques à l'oeuvre dans le discours de presse: Le cas d’étude de l’affaire Aldo Moro

News discourse is a privileged place for identifying discourse strategies used to orient cultural representation or influence the perception of communities. The possibility of understanding the discursive strategies implemented in this kind of discourse finds a coherent methodological framework in the practice of corpus-assisted discourse analysis. In this paper, we focus on a case study: the analysis of the discourse that the French press, namely the dailies Le Monde, Le Figaro and Libération, produced on the “Moro affair”, the president of the Christian Democracy who was kidnapped and killed in 1978 by the Red Brigades, an armed group of the extreme left. Our analysis shows how the linguistic strategies used to describe the protagonists of the case, the Red Brigades, Aldo Moro and Italy differ according to the semantic fields evoked. In the case of the Red Brigades, it is the paradoxical and violent dimension of their identity that is emphasized, which leads them to resort to institutionalized procedures (such as a trial) while they are outside of any institutional (and legal) space, while in the case of the politician Aldo Moro, it is the human dimension that is emphasized, through an important recourse to pathos. Finally, Italy is presented in a caricatured and sometimes grotesque way, which is probably a sign of a difficulty to understand some of its features

Les stratégies linguistiques à l’œuvre dans le discours de presse: le cas d’etude de l’affaire Aldo Moro

News discourse is a privileged place for identifying discourse strategies used to orient cultural representation or influence the perception of communities. The possibility of understanding the discursive strategies implemented in this kind of discourse finds a coherent methodological framework in the practice of corpus-assisted discourse analysis. In this paper, we focus on a case study: the analysis of the discourse that the French press, namely the dailies Le Monde, Le Figaro and Libération, produced on the “Moro affair”, the president of the Christian Democracy who was kidnapped and killed in 1978 by the Red Brigades, an armed group of the extreme left. Our analysis shows how the linguistic strategies used to describe the protagonists of the case, the Red Brigades, Aldo Moro and Italy differ according to the semantic fields evoked. In the case of the Red Brigades, it is the paradoxical and violent dimension of their identity that is emphasized, which leads them to resort to institutionalized procedures (such as a trial) while they are outside of any institutional (and legal) space, while in the case of the politician Aldo Moro, it is the human dimension that is emphasized, through an important recourse to pathos. Finally, Italy is presented in a caricatured and sometimes grotesque way, which is probably a sign of a difficulty to understand some of its features.

Literary double between space and time : a thematic constellation about Einstein’s theories

En 1916 Albert Einstein énonce la théorie de la relativité : véritable révolution scientifique du XXe siècle, elle aura des répercussions touchant à tous les domaines de la connaissance. L'objectif de notre étude est de tracer un cadre des relations existantes entre la littérature européenne et la théorie de la relativité, sur l'interaction de leurs deux langues et sur l'échange de leurs images. Si la science et la littérature dialoguent entre elles, elles le font au sein d'une atmosphère, l'esprit du temps. Les deux disciplines prennent leurs images et leurs thèmes d'un terroir commun : elles deviennent ainsi l'expression d'une époque et en même temps la source de laquelle l'époque se nourrit. Le dialogue entre science et littérature se traduit dans notre méthodologie : le paradoxe des jumeaux, qu'Einstein utilise pour expliquer la déformation spatio-temporelle, se traduit dans le thème du double à partir duquel on a sélectionné un corpus européen. Ensuite, on a procède à une analyse sur deux niveaux, l'un narratologique et l'autre symbolique. Pour le premier niveau on a analysé l'espace-temps en relation au double : on a vu comment les deux sont entrelacés et comment l'espace-temps ne se limite pas à assumer une fonction de décor. Pour le deuxième niveau d'analyse on a emprunté certaines images utilisées par Einstein dans ses textes de vulgarisation, comme le train et la lumière, pour construire une grille critique que nous avons appelé « constellation einsteinienne ». Grace à cette grille de symboles, qui se superpose à celle narratologique, nous pouvons voir comme les éléments évoqués par Einstein se transforment en littérature en gardant toute leur valeur scientifique. De notre analyse résulte un cadre où des éléments scientifiques et des textes de fiction s'entrelacent dans l'expression de l'esprit du temps. La relativité scientifique trouve son contrepartie dans la relativité littéraire.In 1916 Albert Einstein formulated the theory of relativity, a great XX century scientific revolution, which will have repercussions affecting all areas of human knowledge. The aim of our study is to draw a framework of the existing relations between European literature and the theory of relativity, about the interaction of their two languages and the exchange of their images. If science and literature interact to each other, they do so within an atmosphere, the spirit of the times. The two disciplines take their images and their themes from a common ground: they thus become the expression of an era and at the same time the source from which the era nourishes itself. The dialogue between science and literature is reflected in our methodology: the paradox of twins, which Einstein uses to explain spatio-temporal deformation, is transformed in the double theme from which a European corpus was selected. Then, we proceeded to an analysis on two levels, the one narratological and the other symbolic. For the first level, we have focused on space-time double relation, discovering how the two are interlaced and how space-time is not limited to assuming a decor function. For the second level of analysis we have borrowed certain images used by Einstein in his popularization texts, such as train and light, to build a critical grid that we have called the “Einsteinian constellation”. Thanks to this grid of symbols, which is superimposed on that of narratology, we can see that the elements evoked by Einstein transform into literature while retaining all their scientific value. From our analysis results a framework where scientific elements and fiction texts intertwine in the expression of the spirit of the time. Scientific relativity finds its counterpart in literary relativity