THE MANIFESTATION OF THE “HERO” ARCHETYPE IN MODERN AMERICAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE (ON THE EXAMPLE OF Z. MAMDANI'S VICTORY SPEECH)

Abstract

Political discourse serves as a platform for the implementation of power relations, shaping and reshaping identities, and offering ready-made meanings and assessments to its participants, while appealing to archetypes, which are part of the deep structure of the human psyche, inherited many years before our time. Thus, political figures choose a specific vector of interaction with their audiences, thereby activating a number of cognitive mechanisms. The purpose of this article is to identify how the “hero” archetype manifests itself in contemporary American political discourse. The main focus of this research is dictated by the fact that the archetype represents not only a psychological but also a cognitive structure, imbued with specific content that determines the vector of development of political discourse. The practical and scientific significance of this work lies in its interdisciplinary approach, which combines psychological and linguistic approaches to analyse political discourse, which also includes an ideological component. This approach allows for an examination of the abstract concept of archetype within the framework of cognitive linguistics. The research methodology employed in this article explores political discourse, where the “hero” archetype is represented through the slots of the eponymous frame as subject (us), action (struggle), and object (them), which are represented by conceptual metaphors reflecting the mechanisms of conceptualisation and categorisation. A method for analysing the conceptual integration of mental spaces was employed, and the semantic development of metaphors was also carried out. The study has revealed mechanisms by which cognitive structures ascend to universal archetypal scenarios described by C.G. Jung and his followers, where metaphors of transition and struggle activate the archetypal scenario of initiation and the change of epochs. This article attempts to demonstrate the connection between the collective unconscious and human cognitive structures, which is extremely relevant within the anthropocentric paradigm of modern linguistic science.