What is it about?
This article explores the discursive reconstruction of the concept of American exceptionalism in the political discourse of Barak Obama. It underlines his reframing of American uniqueness as an American value that is much anchored in meanings of responsibility, hard work and common good. This new representation challenges widely shared conceptualizations of the term as an unquestioned American superiority and rather roots it in the old Winthropian sense of conditional exceptionalism.
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Why is it important?
This article offers a fresh and timely look at American exceptionalism as a core concept that keeps being interpreted and reinterpreted over American history based on changing geo-poltical and ideological contexts.
Perspectives
This study allowed me to build on previous research on Barack Obama' s political discourse which has been scholarly proved to initiate new perspectives in politics and discourse. It has been an intriguing topic to look at one of the fundamental concepts that shaped the American psyche since early settlement and especially responding to recent reinvigoration of the concept in America's war on terror.
Imen Bouyahi
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This page is a summary of: Rewriting American uniqueness, AILA Review, June 2024, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/aila.23025.bou.
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