Students about relations with Different/Stranger

The article presents the results of the research on the definitional view of the Other/Other, the sources of knowledge and personal experiences of the respondents relating to people different from them. In the first part of the article, the definitions of Otherness/Alien according to different authors are cited and the difference of these two conceptual categories is shown. In the next part of the paper, the negative reactions of society to otherness/ foreignness are presented, with particular emphasis on racist and xenophobic attitudes. Research showing the scale of pejorative behavior toward Otherness/ foreignness in Polish society is presented. The third part of the study presents the results of the author’s research on the relations of students of the University of Rzeszow and the State Higher School of Technology and Economics in Jaroslaw with Others/Aliens, who are part of their immediate environment, including students. The analysis of the research results is an attempt to answer the question “Who is the Other/Other in the perception of students?”.

Functions of the discursive construction of Others/Strangers in selected cabaret sketches

The aim of the study is to identify and describe the function of the discursive construction of Others/Strangers (hereinafter: O/S) in selected cabaret sketches. The data collection method was searching sources. The analytical material consisted of seven sketches from Polish cabarets, selected systematically using the following criteria: time of publication, popularity and topic. Critical Discourse Analysis in the approach of Ruth Wodak and Martin Reisigl was used for the analysis, looking for the application of discursive strategies (naming, adjudicating, arguing, perspectiveizing, strengthening and toning), which allowed for the reconstruction of the discourses used in the studied sketches and then determining the scope of the functions of discursive construction of O/S. The results of the analyses show that in the studied sketches, the discursive construction of O/S is carried out within the framework of the main perspectives: the discourse of representatives of the Other, the discriminatory discourse and the supporting discourse, and fulfills three main functions: ludic, critical-reflective and integrative. The scope of individual functions (especially the critical and reflective function) is varied – more or less unambiguous (from clearly stigmatizing discrimination, through balancing between breaking and strengthening stereotypes, to criticism of both discriminatory and supportive discourse).