Political narrative: concepts, typologies and structures

The article is devoted to the study of the narrative turn effects in humanitarian knowledge on the formation and development of the narrativity theory in relation to various types of discourse. The paper focuses on analytical and theoretical studies of the political narrative, its state of research, systematization of the concepts underlying its interpretations, and identification of the modern trends specifics in the development of political narrative. The authors managed to demonstrate the capacity of the narrative paradigm to describe the narrative nature of mentality and human activity through the prism of narrative in a socio-cultural context. Criteria have been established that make it possible to define a political narrative from the perspective of various interpretations. The theory of metanarrative is systematized and the stages of its transformation in the mirror of postmodernism and metamodern concepts are characterized. Five essential characteristics of the metanarrative are given: usefulness, ubiquity, invisibility, commitment, rigidity. The value component of metanarratives in the aspect of Russian and foreign cultures is represented by the example of basic concepts. The structure of ideologies and the family of ideologies as conceptual cluster formations are presented and described. The theories of the counternarrative are considered and the authors criteria for differentiating the alternative narrative and the counternarrative are put forward. The general structure of the narrative is demonstrated, taking into account narrative levels and narrative acts. The structure of the political narrative is described and the conditions for the successful implementation of the political narrative are identified, including the key elements of the political narrative: the main character, plot, setting, conflict, resolution. The most effective tools of the current manipulative strategy of political storytelling are analyzed – the tactics of spinning or “unwinding” the positive aspects of the message, and the techniques of using spin – cherry picking, gaslighting, non-denial denial and others. The grounds for distinguishing between fakes and factoids are presented. Classification parameters for the narrative analysis of political discourse are proposed.