Features of Representing the Conceptual Metaphor in a Cycle of Political Jokes (On the Material of Jokes About Kseniya Sobchak's Running for President of the Russian Federation)

The article is devoted to the description of the features of a metaphorical model representation in political jokes. The model represents an event significant for modern Russian politics - a female candidate, Kseniya Sobchak, ran for president of the Russian Federation in 2018. The material of the research was jokes from the Anekdoty iz Rossii [Jokes from Russia] website for the period from 14 October 2017 till 1 January 2018. In the cycle of jokes about Kseniya Sobchak's participation in presidential election, the metaphor of a horse became dominating. Its efficiency is determined by the following factors: (1) mass linguaculture has already fixed the comparison of Kseniya Sobchak with a horse; (2) the image of a horse is meaningful for Russian linguaсulturе; (3) horse-related images of a horse race, a race, a hippodrome, a tote and a circus are traditionally used for a metaphorical designation of election campaigns. In jokes about the 2018 Russian presidential election, the initial metaphor “Presidential Candidate (Sobchak) Is a Horse (a dark horse or a Trojan Horse)” developed adjacent metaphors: “Presidential Election Is a Race / Hippodrome / Circus”, “President Is the Organizer of a Race / Tote”, “Alternative Candidates Are Equestrians”, “Voters Are a Herd”. The metaphor of a horse used for characterising Sobchak appeared prior to the beginning of the 2018 presidential race. However, during the period under study, it became more frequent and more structured and acquired additional meanings. If earlier the target of metaphorical expansion was Sobchak's appearance and behaviour, during the period under study, the accent was made on her unexpected running for president, the frame-up character of her candidacy, her superficial intentions, the negative consequences of her unlike victory, i.e., authors of jokes believe she does not fit the post she is running for and the whole situation is illogical and absurd. It is also necessary to note that jokes before Sobchak's runing for president were ironic while during the period under study they became sarcastic, with the growing negative potential of the animal metaphors in them. After the announcement of the election results, a new wave of jokes can be expected, in which the metaphor under study will have new representations, which will help compare the metaphorical forecast implementation and metaphorical summarizing in a cycle of jokes on the participation in the presidential race of the bright and ambiguous person, Kseniya Sobchak.

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