Diskursiivinen antropomorfismi Putinin puheessa lainsäätäjien neuvostolle

We present a case study of Vladimir Putin’s speech to the Russian Council of Legislators in 2023 as an example of the insights and value that a discursive psychological approach can provide for peace and conflict studies. There are some theories that consider the treatment of states as persons to understand politics. Discursive psychology takes an approach that recognises language to be a prime site of social and political action, and psychologically charged discourse is the medium and means of this action. As such, discursive psychology is particularly suited to exploring in the here-and-now how states are anthropomorphised in discourse, and to what end. The analysis demonstrates three discursive actions that Putin uses to construct a personified Russia: 1) the moral character of Russia, 2) orientations to deontic authority, and 3) discourse of democracy in a non-democratic state. Elite political discourse that justifies war is part of a spectrum of violence. The three discursive actions, while not claimed to be exclusive or exhaustive, demonstrate a reliance on a form of discursive anthropomorphism: states are talked about as if they were people, and this gives Putin the discursive and rhetorical means of justifying war. We conclude with a discussion around the implications of discursive anthropomorphism and avenues of future research.