МЕТАФОРИЧЕСКИЙ ОБРАЗ КУЛЬТУРЫ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ РОССИИ В АМЕРИКАНСКОЙ ПРЕССЕ

Abstract

The article deals with constructing the image of contemporary Russian culture in the US media. It states an important role of metaphors in this process. The most widely used metaphoric models of representing Russian culture are ana-lyzed on the basis of a number of articles in three American newspapers – The New York Times, Newsweek and The Washington Post (2010-2020), including the models "culture is war", "culture is politics", "Vladimir Putin is the godfather of culture", "culture is the power of modern Russia" and "culture is Russia". The study shows that in most cases Russian culture in American press is looked upon in close connection with politics and V. Putin's personality. The research data prove that the majority of metaphoric word usages tend to form the negative image of Russian culture in the eyes of US readers. Such aspects as the close ties of culture and politics, conservatism and reluctance to accept western values, significant impact of the ruling elite and oligarchs on culture are assessed negatively. Rich cultural traditions, the scale of issues addressed in the sphere of culture and personal support of some cultural institutions and figures by the president get the positive evaluation. At the same time culture is evaluated neutrally as the means of "soft power" – the ability to influence Russia's relations with western countries (as opposed to the hard power of constraint and finan-cial influence). In general, the study proves that nowadays metaphors describing our cultural life in American press are mostly used not as expressive means, but as the means of showing the negative aspects of culture in contemporary Russia.