Presidential Election Debatein Contemporary American Political Narrative

The article analyzes typical and distinctive features of American political narrative represented by the event of presidential election in the USA in 2024. For study material, the transcript of election debate is used, the debate, in which members of the two leading parties participated – Democrat J. Biden and Republican D. Trump. The research provides an insight into the specific procedure of presidential election in the US and deals with personal profiles of the participants. According to the research, political election narrative has a typically narrative structure and includes characters, setting, plot and moral. The research outlines the following as the distinctive features of political election narrative: intertextuality (in the study material having the form of precedent phenomena, quotation, narration) and focusing of the subjects of the narrative on the dichotomy ‘friend or foe’. To achieve the overall aim of communication in political narrative – racing for power and staying in power – the agents use manipulative strategies that are ultimately targeted at the voter. Candidates proved to employ three main strategies – downplaying, overstating, theatrics strategy, the most used of which has to do with improving their status in the electorate’s eyes. Directions for further research are also suggested