The wounded leader: The illness narratives of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. (June 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- The wounded leader: The illness narratives of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. (June 2021)
- Main Title:
- The wounded leader: The illness narratives of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump
- Authors:
- Jones, Rodney H.
- Abstract:
- Abstract: This paper analyses the COVID-19 narratives of US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, combining principles from applied linguistic approaches to illness narratives and sociolinguistic approaches to language and gender. It focuses specifically on the ways Johnson and Trump structured their stories to portray themselves as certain kinds of 'characters', the ways they discursively constructed agency in their narratives, and the ways they engaged in various practices of stance-taking. The analysis reveals that, although Johnson and Trump seemed to have taken very different lessons from their illnesses, the subtext of both their narratives promoted a masculinist discourse designed to depict them as 'strong leaders' and to detract attention from discussions of their reckless personal behaviour leading up to their infections and the failures of their governments to formulate coherent plans to control the pandemic.
- Is Part Of:
- Discourse, context & media. Volume 41(2021)
- Journal:
- Discourse, context & media
- Issue:
- Volume 41(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 41, Issue 2021 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 41
- Issue:
- 2021
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0041-2021-0000
- Page Start:
- Page End:
- Publication Date:
- 2021-06
- Subjects:
- Affect -- Agency -- Illness narratives -- Masculinity -- Stance
Discourse analysis -- Periodicals
Digital media -- Periodicals
Mass media and language -- Periodicals
Communication -- Periodicals
Communication
Digital media
Discourse analysis
Mass media and language
Periodicals
401.4105 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22116958 ↗
http://www.sciencedirect.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.dcm.2021.100499 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 2211-6958
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 16889.xml