The Representation of Masculinity in Contemporary American Cinema: Critical Discourse Analysis

This study is devoted to analyzing the representation of masculinity presented in American culture and in contemporary US cinema. The work aims to identify changes in the representation of masculinity in American cinema in different time periods and the shift in their relationship to social trends. The study is based on Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis (CDA). The material was analyzed to characterize the stereotypes that constitute the concept of toxic masculinity and to examine the ways in which stereotypical images of men are constructed in selected American films (primarily the movies of the Coen brothers), taking into account their social, cultural and historical contexts. This analysis provides an opportunity to trace how the representation of masculinity is transformed in accordance with cultural and social shifts in American society. As a result of the study, it was possible to identify linguistic features of the representation of masculinity in cinema. For example, male characters in selected films used a variety of expressive means in the form of repetition, emotive vocabulary, imperative, profanity, epithets and metaphors to convey their mood or attitude towards a particular theme and characters in scenes, predominantly women. The results and materials of the study can be used in teaching courses and cultural studies and to conduct new research.