Storytelling technique within the queen elizabeth ii coronavirus discourse, 04.05.20

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Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University

Storytelling technique within the queen elizabeth ii coronavirus discourse, 04.05.20

Humeniuk N.H.

Abstract

The following work is devoted to the problem of storytelling technique within the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse. The Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse is defined as Her Majesty fifth special speech to the nation devoted to the problems of the coronavirus outbreak, which was recorded at Windsor Castle and broadcasted by radio, TV, internet on Sunday, the fifth of April, 2020, with the purpose to support the people of the UK and the Commonwealth realm at the challenging time of coronavirus, to calm them down, to explain the situation and to direct them to be strong, patient and supportive to each other, to be united as a nation to overcome the problems of the coronavirus disease. The storytelling technique is defined as a process of introducing information as a certain story with emphasis on the pragmatic purposes of its creator. It is pointed out that Queen Elizabeth II uses argumentative tactics and storytelling technique to achieve Her pragma-communicative purposes of the coronavirus discourse. It is stressed that the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus speech has the features of narrative, of a story with happy end. It is underlined that the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus message has narrative structure: introduction, main body and end. It is stated that the theme of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus speech is the challenging time of the coronavirus pandemic and the idea of it is strong belief in overcoming the problems of the coronavirus disease. It is pointed out that the main body of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus story is focused on the problem of coronavirus overcoming and contains several informative blocks. It is stressed that the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus story is given in dramatic key but its end is optimistic. It is stated that the usage of the storytelling technique, which is a part of manipulative one, within the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse makes it possible to transform the individual story of Her Majesty into family, local, regional, national and even global story with strong belief in coronavirus disease overcoming with the help of science advances, with the mutual nations «desire to overcome it, with the inner instinctive personal desire to heal, to recover and be healthy.

Key words: storytelling technique, narrative, discourse, addressee, addressor

Анотація

Техніка сторітелінгу в межах дискурсу королеви Єлизавети ІІ з проблем коронавірусу, від 05.04.20 р.

Подана робота присвячена розгляду техніки сторітелінгу в межах дискурсу королеви Єлизавети ІІ з проблем коронавірусу. Дискурс королеви Єлизавети ІІ з проблем коронавірусу є п'ятою спеціальної промовою Її Величності до нації, яка присвячена проблемам спалаху коронавірусу і яка була записана у Віндзорському замку та транслювалася по радіо, телебаченню та Інтернету в неділю, п'ятого квітня 2020 р., з метою підтримати жителів Великобританії та Співдружності у важкі часи коронавірусу, заспокоїти їх, пояснити ситуацію та направити їх на те, щоб вони були сильними, терплячими та підтримували один одного, щоб були єдиними як нація для подолання проблем коронавірусноїхвороби. Техніку сторітелінгу визначено як процес введення інформації у формі певної історії з акцентом на прагматичних цілях її творця. Зазначено, що королева Єлизавета II використовує аргументативну тактику та техніку сторітелінгу для досягнення своїх прагматично-комунікативних цілей дискурсу з проблем коронавірусу. Наголошено, що промова королеви Єлизавети II з проблем коронавірусу має риси розповіді - історії зі щасливим кінцем, для якої характерна наративна структура: вступ, основна частина та кінцівка. Зауважено, що темою промови королеви Єлизавети II з проблем коронавірусу є час випробування пандемією коронавірусу, а ідеєю цієї промови - тверда віра у подолання проблем коронавірусної хвороби, що основна частина зосереджена на проблемі подолання коронавірусу та містить кілька інформаційних блоків. Підкреслено, що використання техніки сторітелінгу, яка є частиною маніпулятивної тактики, в межах дискурсу королеви Єлизавети II з проблем коронавірусу дає можливість перетворити окрему історію Її Величності в сімейну, місцеву, регіональну, національну та навіть глобальну історію з великою вірою у подолання коронавірусної хвороби за допомогою наукових досягнень, із взаємним прагненням держав подолати це, із внутрішнім інстинктивним особистністним бажанням кожного зцілитися, одужати та бути здоровим.

Ключові слова: техніка сторітелінгу, наратив, дискурс, адресат, адресант.

Main part

storytelling discourse queen coronavirus

Defining the problem and argumentation of the topicality of the consideration. It is known that human beings are in constant process of challenging. These challenges may be of individual, community or even global character. The challenge under the title «coronavirus» stroke every person, every community, every society and became the global problem. Queen Elizabeth II made Her contribution to solve this problem by making her special address to the nation at the state of people's despair and disruption. In order to achieve the purposes of Her coronavirus discourse - to calm the people down and support them, to explain the situation and to direct them to follow some rule of behavior - Her Majesty uses certain tactics and techniques, among them is the storytelling technique.

In our work, we define the storytelling technique as a kind of tactical actions of the addresser to achieve his/ her pragmatic purposes by introducing information as a certain story with emphasis on the pragmatic purposes of its creator [9, 32].

Analysis of recent research and publications. The storytelling technique comes from narrative investigations [2; 3; 5; 7; 8; 10]. In our work, we differentiate the terms «narrative» and «discourse», where narrative as a kind of text belongs to language while discourse as a text given with its extra-linguistic factors is a phenomenon of speech. Generally speaking, text as a lingual phenomenon taken without certain situation factors may be modeled as a footprint of a given discourse it is taken from [6, 3].

So, this work makes its contribution to the discourse analysis investigations, as well as to storytelling technique investigations and to the researches of the Queen Elizabeth II discourses. These facts make the given scientific research topical.

Setting the goals and tasks of the article. The aim of the paper is to investigate the storytelling technique of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse, known as Her fifth special address to the nation on the coronavirus problems, 04.05.2020, with the purpose to influence people at the challenging time of coronavirus. To realize the aim of the given work, the method of simple calculation, the discourse analysis method, the method of immediate constituents, the pure sampling and comparative method are used.

The outline of the main research material. In our work we define the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse as Her fifth special speech to the nation [11] devoted to the problems of the coronavirus outbreak, which was recorded at Windsor Castle and broadcasted by radio, TV, internet on Sunday, the fifth of April, 2020, with the purpose to support the people of the UK and the Commonwealth realm at the challenging time of coronavirus, to calm them down, to explain the situation and to direct them to be strong, patient and supportive to each other, to be united as a nation to overcome the problems of the coronavirus disease.

The Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse is given in the form of monologue and the usage of the pronoun «you» transforms it into the form of polylogue with the silent addressee. The Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse is not given spontaneously; it is planned and prepared beforehand.

It is normative for Her Majesty to make ceremonial speeches and Queen Elizabeth II rarely makes special speeches, only «at key moments in the life of the nation - predominantly at times of crisis and grief» [11].

As local coronavirus outbreak happened suddenly and later was transformed into a global crisis in the form of coronavirus pandemic, the whole mankind was not prepared for such state of matter, people were shocked, because the every-day life was ruined and it was necessary to be involved in new unpleasant transformations. So, as the feelings of despair, of unnecessity, of abandonment took possession of people, Queen Elizabeth II as a God agent, as an intermediary between God and people, made Her special address to the nation.

In order to achieve the purposes of Her coronavirus discourse - to calm down the UK and Commonwealth realm community in the period of coronavirus pandemic, to direct the people of it to be patient, united and supportive to each other in order to overcome the disease - Her Majesty uses the argumentative tactics, the storytelling technique.

In this case, the argumentative tactics presupposes the interlocutor convincing in the correctness of the addressor's view point and actions, in the necessity to act in the way proposed by the addressor of information [1], while the storytelling technique presupposes introducing information in a form of a certain story with emphasis on the pragmatic purposes of its creator.

In other words, in order to convince the people to be calm, supportive, patient and united in the period of coronavirus, Queen Elizabeth II uses argumentative tactics as a series of arguments to influence the addressee, to prove the necessity to act and behave in such a manner.

As for the storytelling technique, the given coronavirus discourse of Queen Elizabeth II has all the features of a story, of a narrative with happy end.

In this case, the time and place of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus story are known: the period of coronavirus pandemic and the local / global scale of its occurrence.

The Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus story is given in dramatic key, as coronavirus is a challenge to all the people, having brought grief, enormous changes, financial difficulties:

A time of disruption in the life of our country: a disruption that has brought grief to some, financial difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all (1).

So, the theme of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus narrative is the challenging time of the coronavirus outbreak:

I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time (1).

The main idea of Her Majesty speech is Her strong belief in overcoming the problems of the coronavirus disease, which is expressed several times in Her address to the nation, both in the final (2) and the main part of it (1):

1. Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it (1).

2. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again (ibid.).

As for the type of narration, the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus speech is subjectivized, or given from the first person singular (I, me, my) or plural (we, us, our):

1. It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister (1).

2. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety (ibid.).

3. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future (ibid.).

4. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us (ibid.).

Narration from the first person singular makes this story individual, personal, while the narration from the first person plural makes the given story collective.

Within the given speech of Queen Elizabeth II, we observe the subdivision of the collective narrator into several subgroups. In terms of discourse analysis such phenomenon is known as deictic field mechanism of layering [4], which belongs to manipulative tactics.

In this case, subdivision of We-narrator into: We - children of the royal family - narrator (the second example); We-British nation-narrator (the third example); We-globe nations-narrator (the fourth example) makes it possible to vary the collective story demonstrating the given events with the coronavirus disease as a family story, as a national story, as a global story.

These stories become more picturesque, more vital and vivid, more emotionally coloured with the help of photo and video materials used within the given discourse. So, the collective story of Queen Elizabeth II and her sister about their contribution to support children in 1940, «who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety» (1), contains its photo.

The nation story about the heroic deeds of «everyone on the NHS front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all» (1) and about «the moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers» (ibid.) contains the video materials. These video materials are known to everyone within the UK as an element of bygone. This bygone was emotionally tensed and fixed in nation memory as a certain experience, contemporary experience, which is a part of heroic past, a reflection of nowadays present and result of future destiny of the British nation:

The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future (1).

So, we can state that the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse given in the form of monologue as individual story is transformed into a family, local, national and even global story with unpredictable challenges and problems to be solved, as well as with a strong desire and strong belief of all the individuals, families, communities, nations and even humanity to be united in the process of overcoming the coronavirus disease.

Another peculiarity of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse is the fact that it also has a narrative structure: the introduction, the main body and the end.

In this case, the introduction contains the information about the challenging time of the coronavirus disease given in the first sentence of it:

I am speaking to you at what I know is an increasingly challenging time (1).

At the same time, the main body is focused on the problem of coronavirus overcoming. It contains several informative blocks: 1) Queen Elizabeth II's gratitude to the workers of NHS and care workers for their heroic day-to-day deeds during the coronavirus outbreak; 2) Queen Elizabeth II gratitude to the people staying at home; 3) heroic deeds of the whole nation during the coronavirus pandemic as a part of its past, present and future; 4) globe heart-warming stories of people supporting each other during the coronavirus pandemic; 5) positive features of self-isolating; 6) Queen Elizabeth II's former experience of children evacuation:

1. I want to thank everyone on the NHS ~ front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all (1).

2. I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones (ibid.).

3. And those who come after us will say the Britons ofthis generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future (ibid.).

4. Across the Commonwealth and around the world, we have seen heart-warming stories of people coming together to help others, be it through delivering food parcels and medicines, checking on neighbours, or converting businesses to help the relief effort (ibid.).

5. And though self-isolating may at times be hard, many people of all faiths, and of none, are discovering that it presents an opportunity to slow down, pause and reflect, in prayer or meditation (ibid.).

6. It reminds me of the very first broadcast I made, in 1940, helped by my sister. We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety (ibid.).

All the informative blocks of the main body of the narrative form the argumentative component of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse. From fact to fact, from argument to argument all these informative blocks are united to prove the UK and Commonwealth realm inhabitants the necessity to be calm, supportive, patient, helpful and united to overcome the coronavirus disease.

As for the final part of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus narrative, it is optimistic:

We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again (1).

It contains strong belief in coronavirus disease overcoming with the help of science advances, with the mutual nations' desire to overcome it, with an inner instinctive personal desire to heal, to recover and be healthy:

This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed - and that success will belong to every one of us (1).

So, being a dramatic story of the coronavirus challenge, the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse is transformed into a story with happy end - better days will return, people will be healthy and happy again.

Happy end of the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus narrative is Her personal vision of the real situation, is Her own belief on happy end, is Her own desire to see positive results of the final part of the challenge known as coronavirus pandemic.

Conclusions and directions for further research. Using the storytelling technique within the coronavirus discourse, 04.05.20, Her Majesty tries to make her individual coronavirus story realistic with happy end at the final part of it; tries to make all the inhabitants of the UK and Commonwealth realm believe it, transforming her individual story into a local, family, regional, nation, global story with happy end - overcoming the coronavirus disease. Using the storytelling technique, Her Majesty also tries to calm people down in the period of the coronavirus outbreak by demonstrating a number of stories of different levels starting from individual ones up to national and even global stories, proving the fact that it is normative to have challenges all the time; it is normative to be tested and probed, to make mistakes and to make correctness of them; it is normative for people to analyze their behavior, to analyze the nature of the given problems.

Summing up the material, we can also state the perspective ofinvestigating the usage ofthe expressive means and stylistic devices within the Queen Elizabeth II coronavirus discourse, as well as making a research of its argumentative component.

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