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Abstract(s)
The present thesis aims to provide a detailed image on how the East-West discourse is embedded into the contemporary Hungarian political communication, so into the ruling party’s as into the opposition’s one. With the vocabulary of postcolonial studies and following the methodology of a discourse analysis I intend to reveal multiple characteristics of the Hungarian political discourse, which prove that it is a branch of the broader orientalist discourse. For this reason, I used different kinds of sources: speeches of the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, articles from pro-government and opposition press, and handbooks of postcolonial studies giving the frame of the examination. For the clearest understanding of why such elements dominate the Hungarian political communication, I inserted a historical overview into the thesis. In this chapter I present the history of the key geographical concepts of the discourse (Eastern Europe and Central Europe) and through distinct theories I aim to reveal the reasons why in the Eastern half of Europe, and more narrowly in Hungary, the questions of identity, self-determination and geographical positioning are important factors in the political life. Besides, I also explain the notion of nesting orientalism, raising the reader’s attention to the fact that despite the original theory of the large East-West dichotomy, orientalist labels can work even on the lowest level, as the example of Hungary demonstrates it.