Russia in the Mirror of Western European Rock: A Comparative Study of English- and Finnish Language Songs

Abstract

Introduction. Amid the intensification of geopolitical tensions and the confrontation between competing narratives of national identity, the study of foreign-language representations of culture has acquired particular relevance. The construction of the image of a nation has moved beyond specialised text types and increasingly draws on genres of popular culture, including popular music. Rock music, which has historically served as a platform for political debate and cultural exchange, provides unique material for the study of cross-cultural representation. To date, research on rock music has focused primarily on nations’ self-representation, while paying little attention to the portrayal of other cultures. The present study addresses this gap by analysing representations of Russia in English- and Finnish-language rock music. The aim of the study is to identify similarities and differences in the construction of the country’s image within two linguocultural environments that differ considerably in terms of geographical proximity, the intensity of cultural ties, and ideological positioning towards Russia.Materials and Methods. The material consisted of a bilingual comparative corpus of 30 rock songs, with 15 songs in each of the English- and Finnish-language subcorpora. The material was analysed using a corpus-oriented discourse analysis aimed at identifying discourse markers at the micro level, including xenonyms, proper names, intertexts and tropes, and at the macro level, including the themes of war, cold, culture, freedom and emotion. This analysis was supplemented by quantitative distributional analysis, interlinguocultural analysis of the techniques used to introduce Russianisms, multimodal discourse analysis of the interaction between semiotic codes, and intertextual analysis of cultural references.Results and Discussion. It has been established that, despite the shared use of semiotic techniques and thematic repertoires, representations of Russia differ substantially across the two subcorpora. Anglophone rock places greater emphasis on political themes, activated through Cold War metaphors and the antinomy of “Russia versus the West”, thereby constructing a more ideologised and conflict-oriented image. Finnish-language rock draws on a rich range of cultural references, from literature and music to cuisine, and creates a more balanced image that combines universal human meanings with culturally specific elements. Both forms of discourse are characterised by a multimodal strategy of meaning construction; however, they differ in the frequency of xenonyms, the preferred techniques used to introduce them, their strategies of intertextuality, and their geographical framing. The identified differences reflect the ideological orientations of the respective discursive communities: geopolitical rivalry in the Anglophone context and geographical proximity combined with historical interconnectedness in the Finnish-language context. The study demonstrates that popular music can function not only as a means of cultural representation, but also as an instrument for constructing and reinterpreting national images across translingual and transcultural dimensions.Conclusion. The findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of how national images are discursively constructed through the systematic selection and foregrounding of culturally specific markers; methodologically, they confirm the value of integrating corpus-based, interlinguocultural, and multimodal approaches in cross-cultural discourse analysis. The study opens up further avenues for investigating how popular music genres represent other nations and how these representations relate to broader media images and public opinion.