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The discursive construction of high achievers’ identities in American culture

  • Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska

    Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska is associate professor and head of the Department of Pragmatics in the Institute of English at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Her research interests are in linguistic pragmatics, cross-cultural communication, (im)politeness and face theory, and (critical) discourse studies. She is the author of Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Politeness in the Case of Polish and English (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 1999). Her recent monographic and edited publications include FACE. An Interdisciplinary Perspective (WUŚ, 2010), Inność/różnorodność w języku i kulturze (WUŚ, 2015), New Ways to Face and Social Interaction (WUŚ, 2016), and Oblicza męskości / Faces of masculinity (WUŚ, 2017).

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Published/Copyright: December 19, 2018

Abstract

It is a study of the discursive construction of high achievers’ identities in American culture. A corpus of 100 commencement speeches delivered during 2016 and 2017 graduation ceremonies in American universities has been used to analyse how commencement speakers, as a rule highly successful individuals, construct their identities through discourse. Besides celebrating academic achievements, one of the communicative purposes of the commencement speech is giving the graduates advice for the future. It has been investigated how the speakers legitimize their qualifications as a role model and the source of life wisdom. Due to the specificity of the discourse to be investigated, based on the foundations of American ethos of hard work and drive for success, Critical Discourse Analysis (van Dijk 2002, 2009; Wodak 2002; Wodak et al. 2009) has been chosen as a methodological approach which can most adequately help analyze the discursive formation of identity. As the discourse to be analyzed is agentive discourse, culture-specific both in its form and content, I have decided to combine Critical Discourse Analysis with cultural studies (Hall 1990, 1996a, 1996b; Barker and Galasiński 2001).

About the author

Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska

Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska is associate professor and head of the Department of Pragmatics in the Institute of English at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Her research interests are in linguistic pragmatics, cross-cultural communication, (im)politeness and face theory, and (critical) discourse studies. She is the author of Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Politeness in the Case of Polish and English (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 1999). Her recent monographic and edited publications include FACE. An Interdisciplinary Perspective (WUŚ, 2010), Inność/różnorodność w języku i kulturze (WUŚ, 2015), New Ways to Face and Social Interaction (WUŚ, 2016), and Oblicza męskości / Faces of masculinity (WUŚ, 2017).

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Published Online: 2018-12-19
Published in Print: 2018-12-19

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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