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Research on the Masculinities Construction from the Perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis - Taking Obama's Speeches as an Example

Author(s)

Shiyu Xu

Affiliation(s)

School of Foreign Languages, Fuyang Normal University, Fuyang, Anhui, China

Abstract

This essay explores the indexing of masculinities in political discourse, centering on Obama’s 2004 keynote speech, The Audacity of Hope, marking the first African-American presidency in U.S. history. It commences by outlining the ideal American presidency and introduces the concepts of masculinities and gender, accompanied by a theoretical framework elucidating their construction in political discourse. Emphasizing social constructionism, the essay utilizes text analysis methods to analyse Obama’s masculine presentation in four aspects: modality, pronoun usage, parallelism, and repetition. Obama employs high and medium-value modal verbs to convey assertiveness and competence, while maintaining politeness with low-value ones. His frequent use of the plural pronoun ‘we’ fosters intimacy with the audience and garners support, while singular ‘I’ underscores his individuality and strength. Additionally, rhetorical devices like repetition and parallelism enhance Obama’s masculine image of strength, power, and passion. The study concludes that Obama endeavours to project an idealized presidential persona, with masculinity traits evident in his discourse, highlighting the performativity inherent in political masculinity.

Keywords

Obama's Keynote Speech; CDA; Masculinities Construction

References

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