LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF DONALD TRUMP’S IMAGE IN MODERN NON-FICTION LITERATURE

Abstract

The article deals with representation of Donald Trump’s image in the modern documentary prose on the example of the work by G. Miller «The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy” (2018). This publication is a compilation of interviews, articles and appeals in mass media, and testimonies of witnesses and direct participants of events and covers a long stretch of time - literally from the birth of D. Trump, depicting the development of Trump as a businessman and the facts related to Trump’s election campaign and the first third of his presidency. The popularity of documentary prose is a typical feature the 20th century literature. The documentary literature is characterized by the publicistic evaluation of the author. Its typical feature is analysis of documentary materials. The aim of the article is to reveal the evaluative statements of the author. It provides examples of linguistic means and communicative strategies which are targeted at description of the multifaceted image of the American President. In the course of analysis of the text of the work, the author arrives at the conclusion that the author forms in his readers an utterly negative image of the US President. The following constituents of the image of Donald Trump have been singled out in the study: an alien (as a part of the opposition “alien - own”, basic for political discourse) pro-Russian candidate, showman, politician and personality. The personal traits of D. Trump are described with the help of rather stereotypical linguistic units with saliently pejorative semantics. The units with the meanings of “liar”, “narcissus” and “aggressor” are the most frequent ones. In spite of the fact that the protagonist of the book is President of the leading world power, the author stresses his illegitimate and unlawful actions.