Dyskurs wokół śmierci Stanisława Pyjasa (językowe strategie zarządzania kryzysem w prasie krakowskiej)

Abstract

The article presents (from a linguistic perspective) the strategies of describing and evaluating the events of May 1977, which activated part of the students’ environment (critical to the authority) and the opposition during Juwenalia (annual Polish students’ holiday). The direct cause was the death of a Jagiellonian University Polish Philology student, Stanisław Pyjas, who had previously been within the range of interest of the security services. The analysis of the then official-circulation press and (complementarily) a KC PZPR (Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party) propaganda booklet (produced by the Department of Ideological-Educational Activity for internal use) has enabled the author to indicate the linguistic (rhetorical) means that were used for dealing with the crisis, including the ways of demoting the opponent (“they”), creating a positive image of the authority and its supporters (“we”), euphemizing events, and profiling assessments.