Formes de représentation « extrême » et enjeux éthotiques dans le discours politique. Un exemple de réparation-rénovation de l’image discursive d’un parti

This paper examines the mechanisms of linguistico-discursive process of extremization through which a political speaker constructs disparaging representations of the political and social entities to which he and his party are opposed. These discursive strategies are part of a process of reshaping the collective ethos, which is aimed at repairing and revitalizing the party’s image in response to its political positioning being labelled “extreme” in socio-political debates. The analysis in this paper illustrates how the Other is extremized in discourse, thereby implicitly de extremizing the party’s ethos.