Analyzing Genre

Graffiti in Athens

Maria Davou, DAL07, Prof. VJK Bhatia

Hellenic American University

Situation: Background & Context

• Place: downtown Athens• Time: 2009 – today• Reaction by "audience": For (a valid and much needed form of political expression, politically and aesthetically)

Neutral (it's ok as long as it's not ugly or offensive)

Against (vandalism, violation of property)

• High coverage through Social Media

CausesFinancial crisis spawned outrage against politicians

Outrage expressed through graffiti all over Athens

Political graffiti as a medium of expression

Graffiti: Communicative Purpose

Political Message

Aiming at judging, raising awareness, protesting, influencing future actions

a political "shout-out" to the world!

Graffiti: Situation Type

Message:short, impressive, catchy, direct, effective, aiming at getting attention from passers-by or drivers (like a slogan in advertisement)

Adequate to fit the constraints of the medium (wall)

Medium/Channel

Wall in central areasHas to be visibleUsually on public buildings, abandoned houses, fences

Graffiti: ParticipantsAuthor(s): typically young, active, educated, creative, politically informed, angry, clever, daring

Recipient(s): the world Message in English! Why?Targeting Athenians, tourists, journalists, social media users etc

Graffiti: content & organization 1

Image & TextRed & Black (strong, connotation of revolution)Nouns (minimal use of words)Wall "dialogue" (fascist reply)

2

Text onlyRedVerb form:ImperativeBriefHuge

3Text, Signs and ImageGreen & Blue (colors of two political parties that governed Greece)Humorous, cleverWhole sentence, syntactically more complexDirect

4Text onlyVariety of colorsPleasant to the eyeLexicogrammatically sophisticatedCognitively more demanding Humorous, clever

Political GraffitiGenre:

Political DiscoursePromotion of ideaAdvertisement-slogan likePurpose: information---persuasion---awakening

Question: is it a form of advertising?

Thank you!

:-)