Transformations of the American hero in the US media discourse
Abstract
Abstract In the era of digital technologies, media has become a powerful tool of shaping worldview of people by means of sociocultural stereotypes. Formed in the process of evaluative categorization, sociocultural stereotypes represent simplified and conventional images of individuals and groups in media discourse. Affected by a range of factors, stereotypes undergo changes. Mass media play a particularly influential role in this process. The prominent figure of the US media landscape is ideologically charged stereotype of the American hero that embodies nationally significant ideas of freedom, individualism, and enterprise that lead to the accomplishment of a much-desired goal. I argue that the idealized cultural construct of the American hero, embodied in a sociocultural stereotype, is conceptualized through an image schema integrating foundational elements: PART–WHOLE–FORCE, SOURCE–PATH–GOAL. The WHOLE, representing the hero, comprises PARTS such as appearance, clothing, and behavior. FORCE signifies hero’s strength necessary to achieve the GOAL. SOURCE arises from one’s understanding, while the PATH involves overcoming adversities, culminating in success as the GOAL. This paper outlines transformations of the American hero stereotype in the US media discourse in diachronic perspective. Invariably virtuous, courageous, self-confident, purposeful, and hardworking, the American hero is inspirational and idealized image that takes on different forms due to changes of historical context. In different periods, the American hero is represented by a first settler, a cowboy, a ranger, a scientist. This stereotype functions as a model pattern for evaluating individuals and social groups. While the portrayal of the American hero in media discourse adapts to changing contexts, his image schema remains invariable.
Downloads
References
Ashmore, R. D., & Del Boca, F. K. (2017). Conceptual approaches to stereotypes and stereotyping. In D. L. Hamilton (Ed.), Cognitive processes in stereotyping and intergroup behavior (pp. 1–35). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Bartmiński, Jerzy (2017). What does it mean for stereotypes to “Reside in language”? In A. Dąbrowska,W.Pisarek, & G. Stickel (Eds.), Stereotypes and linguistic prejudices in Europe, (pp. 115–137). Research Institute for Linguistics Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Bodenhausen, G. V., & Macrae, C. N. (1998). Stereotype activation and inhibition. In R. S. Wyer, Jr. (Ed.), Stereotype activation and inhibition (pp. 1–52). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Boorstin, D. J.(2010). The Americans: The national experience. New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Bourdieu, P. (1985). The social space and the genesis of groups. Theory and Society, 14, 723–744. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00174048
Brylla, C. (2018). A Social cognition approach to stereotyping in documentary practice. In C. Brylla, & M. Kramer (Eds.), Cognitive theory and documentary film (pp. 263–279). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Beukeboom, C. J., & Burgers, Ch. (2019). How stereotypes are shared through language: A review and introduction of the social categories and stereotypes Communication (SCSC) Framework. Review of Communication Research, 7, 1–37. https://doi.org/10.12840/issn.2255–4165.017
Deutschmann, M., & Steinvall, A. (2020). Combatting linguistic stereotyping and prejudice by evoking stereotypes. Open Linguistics, 6(1), 651–671. https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2020-0036
Dyer, R. (2002) The Matter of images: Essays on representations (2nd ed). London: Routledge.
Fishwick, M. (1952). The cowboy: America's contribution to the world's mythology. Western Folklore, 11(2), 77–92.
Fishwick, M. (1985). Seven pillars of popular culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Furkó, B. P. (2013). Irish English stereotypes. A variational pragmatic analysis. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica 5(2), 123–135. https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2014-0009
Gadamer, H.-G. (2004). Truth and Method. 2 ed. London: Sheed and Ward Stagbooks.
Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind. Bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago, Il: Chicago University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1954/2014). The development of personality. In H. Read, M Fordham, & G. Adler (Eds.), Bollingen series XX: The collected works of C.G. Jung Volume 17: The development of personality (pp. 165–186). New York, NY: Pantheon Books/ London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315725277
Kimmel, M. (2005). Culture regained: Situated and compound image schemas. In B. Hampe & J. E. Grady (Eds.), From perception to meaning image schemas in cognitive linguistics (pp. 285–311). Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Klein, E. (2003). Klein’s comprehensive etymological dictionary of the English language (8th ed.). Amsterdam, Boston, London: Elsevier Science B.V.
Lawton, L. (2016). Reconsidering the use of gender stereotypes in medieval romance: Figures of vulnerability and of power. Miranda, 12. Université Toulouse Jean–Jaurès. https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.8646
Lyubymova, S. (2022a). Nomen Est Omen Socialis. Designation as Means of Stereotyping. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 14(2), 116–133. https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2022-0019
Lyubymova, S. (2022b). Sociocultural stereotypes in the English-speaking discourse: dynamic aspect. Bulletin of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University. Philological Sciences, 2 (350), 60–68. https://doi.org/10.12958/2227-2844-2022-2(350)-60-68 (in Ukrainian).
Lyubymova, S. (2023). Dynamics of Media Stereotyping. Proceedings the International Scientific Conference “Cognitive Linguistics in the Year 2023”, September 13–15, 22–23. Krosno, Poland: Krosno State Academy of Applied Sciences.
Moore, F. (1858). Diary of the American Revolution. From newspapers and original documents (Vol.1). New York, NY: Charles Scribner.
Morgan, W. (1988). An American icon: Brother Jonathan and American identity. Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press.
Oakley, T. (2012). Image Schemas. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of cognitive linguistics (pp. 214–235), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ross, T. (2019). Media and stereotypes. In S.Ratuva (Ed.), The Palgrave handbook of ethnicity. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_26-1
Schneider, D. J. (2004). The psychology of stereotyping. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Shevchenko, I.S. (2024). A multimodal conceptual metaphor in political media discourse. Linguistic Bulletin of Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy, 36, 132 – 138. https://doi.org/10.31651/2226-4388-2024-36-132-138 (in Ukrainian).
Shutova, M. (2015). Methodological guidelines in the study of ethnostereotypes and methods of their complex reconstruction. Bulletin of the Kyiv National Linguistic University. Series: Philology, 18, (1), 173–182. http://nbuv.gov.ua/UJRN/Vknlu_fil_2015_18_1_22 (in Ukrainian).
Tomasello, M. (2003). The key is social cognition. In D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 47–57). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Copyright (c) 2024 Lyubymova Svitlana
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors, who publish with this journal, accept the following conditions:
The authors reserve the copyright of their work and transfer to the journal the right of the first publication of this work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Non-Derivs License (CC BY-NC-ND), which allows other persons to freely distribute a published work with mandatory reference to the authors of the original work and the first publication of the work in this journal.
Authors have the right to enter into separate additional agreements for the non-exclusive dissemination of the work in the form in which it was published by this journal (for example, to post the work in the electronic institutions' repository or to publish as part of a monograph), provided that the link to the first publication of the work in this journal is given.
The journal policy allows and encourages the authors to place the manuscripts on the Internet (for example, in the institutions' repositories or on personal websites), both before the presentation of this manuscript to the editorial board and during review procedure, as it contributes to the creation of productive scientific discussion and positively affects the efficiency and dynamics of citing the published work (see The Effect of Open Access).
