Self-perception And World Picture In Russian Middle And High School History And Literature Textbooks From The Perspective Of Discourse Analysis

This research topic is as much an analysis of the linguistics of textbook discourse as it is a study of the politics of textbooks and the rhetoric of the image of the state.A prerequisite for a better future for humanity is the construction of a community with a shared future.If China wants to build a community with a shared future,it cannot do so without building a community with a shared future with its neighbouring countries.The Russian Federation is the largest neighbour among China’s neighbours,and relations between the two countries cannot be separated from the people-to-people contact between the two countries.It is also necessary to understand how Russia "tells the Chinese story well".What other texts can we use to increase our knowledge of Russia,in addition to government announcements or media reports,which are too often the first to be used to understand a country? According to the basic concept of textbook politics,textbooks,especially secondary school textbooks,are both a medium of ideological transmission and ideological shaping,and are one of the most important ways in which a country disciplines the ideology of young people and society as a whole.According to the basic concepts of the rhetoric of national image,the basic issues affecting the mutual perception of nations include at least three aspects: self-perception,the image of the other and the world picture.The question that arises is how,then,is self-perception presented in Russian textbooks for grades six to ten in history and literature? And how do Russian textbooks for grades six to ten present the image of China and the outlook on the world?In the Russian education system,grades six to ten are equivalent to middle and high school in China,while history and literature textbooks are arguably the most important paths of ideological discipline.Therefore,this article takes history and literature textbooks approved for publication by the Russian Ministry of Education as the object of study,grades six to ten as the research segment,and theories of critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics as the basis of research,from The study examines the cognitive framework in Russian literature and history textbooks for grades 6-10 from the perspectives of "selfperception"(national identity)and "perception of the other"(the image of China and the picture of the world).The first chapter of the paper introduces the research questions,the current status of the research and the research proposal.Chapter 2 provides an overview of the educational situation in Russian history and literature textbooks.The third chapter explores the government’s training goals and the representation of selfperception in textbooks.In addition,three aspects of national identity,cultural identity and border identity in textbooks are analysed in detail.Chapter 4analyses the framework of the world picture and ideology in Russian textbooks,focusing in particular on the ideological features of Russian history textbooks and the legitimacy of the regime.Chapter 5 analyses the representation of China in Russian textbooks from three different perspectives: frequency of occurrence,co-occurrence and historical evolution.Chapter 6 analyses the self-perceptions and world images reflected in Russian literary textbooks.Chapter 7 discusses the significance of the study and future research directions.National identity is an expression of a country’s ’self-perception’.Textbooks shape the national identity of a society as a whole through the plurality of individual social identities,cultural identities that encompass shared historical memories and emotions,and border identities that encompass national landscapes and a sense of frontiers.The first dimension of national identity is ethnic identity.This study found that in Russian secondary school textbooks,ethnic identity can be expressed in a variety of forms,such as the specific linguistic expressions used in textbooks to describe the homeland,’our homeland’,’dear homeland’,etc.This is particularly evident in literature textbooks.Ethnic identity describes the common selfperception of the people living in the country.The expressions of ethnic identity in textbooks show that Russia is striving to build a multi-ethnic,united and jointly prosperous society.History textbooks also contain language about always being ready to defend the country from its enemies.The second dimension of national identity is cultural identity.A shared collective memory facilitates the formation of a common cultural background,which once formed is relatively stable and transmitted from generation to generation.This study found that the fundamental historical changes in Russia’s different regimes and ideologies are well represented in the patterns of Russian national history,and are comprehensively depicted in Russian history textbooks,with a focus on historical crises.Crises in the country’s history are an important factor in national unity.It is also important to note that religious factors play a very important role in the cultural framework.The third dimension of national identity is border identity.This includes not only the identification with the geographical landscape,but also with the frontier.This study found that Russian secondary school textbooks not only praise the country’s vast landscapes and rich natural environment in the form of descriptive language such as "vast",but also constantly emphasise Russia’s innate geographical position as a "strategic location" and "the centre of Europe and Asia".The need to defend this vast territory is also repeatedly emphasised in the textbooks.The ideology conveyed in textbooks may even play an important role in modern Russian politics.The border identity shaped in textbooks,which strives to build a legacy of intergenerational ties between people and a specific territory,becomes the material basis for the constant strengthening of national identity.The world picture is another basic form of ’otherness’ in the cognitive framework of textbooks.One effective way of examining the world picture in a country’s textbooks is to examine the selection and narrative of ’key events’ in textbooks,and another is to examine the selection and narrative of ’key countries’ in textbooks.With regard to the narrative of ’key events’,we believe that the ’chronology of events’ in textbooks is a snapshot of historical development,a snapshot of the events that have shaped history.It is a selection of key events that have shaped the course of history.The selection of the ’chronicle of events’ reveals the way in which textbook discourse constructs and identifies with the image of the ’other’.The study found that one of the distinctive features of the chronology of events in Russian textbooks for years 6-10 is the chronological approach and the classification of events according to their importance,thus creating a global picture of the ’historical narrative’.With regard to the narrative of ’key countries’,we believe that the choice of countries to focus on and how they are narrated reveals the ’world picture’ that textbooks attempt to create.The study found that the most significant focus in Russian history textbooks for secondary schools was on European countries.In literature textbooks,authors give absolute importance to Western literature.However,although Europe and the United States are mentioned extensively in textbooks,the discourses and contexts in which they are mentioned are mostly negative,creating a particular ’dichotomy’ in the world picture.Asian countries are mentioned much less frequently than their Western counterparts.The image of China in textbooks is very positive in history books,and the language used to describe China in textbooks has a certain specificity.The image of China is one of the most important expressions of the’perception of the other’ in the cognitive framework of textbooks.In terms of the’focus’ on the image of the country,a total of 22 Russian textbooks for grades 6to 10 were studied for the names and contexts of the different countries mentioned in them,and it was found that the ’focus’ on European countries was greater.In terms of the frequency of references to China,the world’s history textbooks contain 217 references to China,while the "History of Russia" textbook series contains relatively few references to China.The frequency of China content in textbooks increases as the grade level increases and the subject matter becomes more advanced.In terms of the ’association’ of images of China,we believe that we can start by looking at countries and the words that appear most frequently in relation to them.The study found that in terms of cooccurring terms,most of the words related to "China" in history textbooks appear in the three main categories of military,political and cultural.In terms of the ’developmental’ nature of China’s image,the study found that China is described in Russian secondary school history textbooks as having developed in three different periods: the ancient Eastern Empire,the Communist Republic with which Russia had a stormy relationship,and the Modern Friendship Partnership.Despite the border conflict between the Soviet Union and China,the overall image of China is portrayed very positively in the textbooks.In conclusion,the aim of this paper is to clarify the cognitive framework of the discourse presented in Russian textbooks by examining the discourses in Russian history for grades 6 to 10 and literature for grades 5 to 11.By exploring the national identity,the image of China and the picture of the world presented in Russian textbooks,it is possible to facilitate the interaction between Russia and China and to provide scientific analysis and rational understanding to support international understanding between Russia and China.