Reproducing the myth of U.S. exceptionalism in cinematography: the case of civil war (2024)

The myth of American exceptionalism, although criticized and deconstructed, including by academic circles, continues to play an important role in the U.S. political process, which makes it important to identify the mechanisms of its reproduction. The present study attempts to contribute to the discussion in this problem area by assessing what political symbols are used today to maintain the aforementioned myth. In particular, it is based on the beliefs concerning U.S. statehood, U.S. values and U.S. power. Turning to the analysis of cinema as a form of public discourse, the authors chose Civil War feature film as a case for the study. The film centers on the collapse of the U.S. statehood and power against the backdrop of an internal armed conflict, which makes the feature a valuable empirical material. The authors undertake the task of identifying the symbols that are involved in reproduction of the myth of U.S. exceptionalism within the selected case-study. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is constructivism, and the main applied method is qualitative content-analysis. The study has shown that by demonstrating the collapse of the symbols of U.S. statehood and foundations of economic, value-based and military and political power of the United States, the idea of the inevitability and necessity of maintaining the belief in American exceptionalism is transmitted; its abandonment is equal to the end of the nation itself in its current form.

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