Prof. Dr. Monika Wingender

I am interested in the inter­relationship of politi­cal violence and language.

In my research, I am con­cerned with discursive manifes­tations of political violence and nar­ratives that legitimize and justify violence. Using Russia’s current war of aggres­sion against Ukraine as a case study, I focus on Zelensky’s rhetoric of ap­peal, Putin’s propaganda, and the public represen­tation of language in the war situation and iden­tify key discourse strate­gies such as falsifi­cations of history to justify and explain violence. In this con­text, I am particu­larly interes­ted in the complexity of the inter­relationship of violence and lan­guage and analyze the extent to which lan­guage functions as a medium of violence, represents a form of violence itself – for example through hate speech – or en­ables an exchange about violence.

Research Area Interpretations: 3.2 Memories of Violence