Kotunova Olga
The article examines the problems of structural organization of cancel culture, the formal and substantive implications of these issues. The object of the study is cancel culture as a discourse that performs a specific function within the discursive spaces of historical memory and symbolic politics. The primary tool of cancel culture discourse is moral rhetoric, with the central rhetorical figure being the appeal to responsibility. Cancel culture is recognized as a discourse of conflict aimed at restoring justice and is analyzed in a comparative framework alongside the discourse of judgment. It is shown that moral rhetoric provides instrumental support to cancel culture discourse, justifying the claims it raises and functioning to idealize the ethos of the group involved (whereas its main function should be to justify the connection between the ethos and a moral ideal). Historical responsibility is viewed as one of key concepts in the moral vocabulary of cancel culture, especially when cancellation practices address the past. Under this approach, historical responsibility turns out to be a complex multi-layered concept – a construct in which the declared goals differ from the outcomes realized. It is argued that the demand for historical responsibility as part of the cancel culture discourse can either be a discourse error or a manipulative tactic. The structure of the cancel culture discourse is analyzed by reference to the discourse ethics of Paul Ricoeur, Karl-Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas. The challenges and paradoxes of implementing historical responsibility within the framework of the cancel culture discourse are revealed through the example of the campaign against the commemorative legacy of Cecil Rhodes. It is concluded that cancel culture, as a conflict-driven discourse aimed at restoring justice, is unable to achieve its stated goal. This suggests that modern society needs alternative discursive models.
Keywords: cancel culture, responsibility, historical responsibility, discourse, discourse ethics, memory studies, historical memory