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«Спрячь бабушкин паспорт!»: Дискурс возраста как ресурс конструирования образа врага
The article is the first to address the discourse of age as a resource for constructing the image of the enemy. It is based on the Russian government's official statements, politicians' comments and the country's leading media sources, as well the authors' sociological research. The first part of the paper examines approaches to the analysis of the image of the enemy, its essential characteristics and the emotions it is intended to evoke. In the second section, the authors show that the political potential of the discourse of age stems from the ability to employ it in drawing external and internal symbolic boundaries and in legitimising social inequality. The third part examines how age differences are used in politics. It looks at two periods: the rally activity of 2017-2021 and the confrontation with the "collective West" in the context of the Special military operation. Next, the authors demonstrate that the discourse of age contributes to the realization of the functions of the enemy image, the strengthening of collective identity, the legitimation of violence, power and socio-political order, and the prediction of victory. Finally, the article examines the extent to which the age markers correlate with the images of the enemy that function in the social views of contemporary Russians.