1. Full name: Trần Thị Vân Thuỳ                                                  2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: 15/09/1980                                                        4. Place of birth: Nam Dinh

5. Admission Decision number: 2331/QĐ-ĐHNN issued by the President of VNU University of Languages and International Studies, dated on December 23rd, 2016

6. Changes in academic process: Revising the thesis title (Decision No 2449/QĐ-ĐHNN dated on December 11th, 2019)

7. Official thesis title: Construction of the images of a female presidential candidate

8. Major: English linguistics                                                       9. Code: 9220201.01

10. Supervisor:  Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Hoà                 

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

First, it should be noted that the current study takes a different direction looking at discursive image construction of a female presidential candidate by others against the backdrop of great deal of research focusing squarely on self-representations or self-identity construction.

Addressing the first two research questions, three different images of Hillary Rodham Clinton having been constructed by the then-First Lady of the country, the then-president of the country and lastly by her husband. First, it is the image of a children’s protector and defender who has compassion for children, empathy, openness, trust and empowerment to create the betterment and wellbeing for children, especially children of disadvantages. Second, the image of a fulltime working married woman – a normal human being experiencing a normal life as we always do, from relaxation, to being a great mother to children, to a devoted and supportive wife while being independent - the quality of a modern woman in the present world is casted. Third is the image of a viable presidential candidate who has ample aptitudes and qualities that people admire, who possesses an optimistic vision of the country and country’s future and core values, who is a leader with real plans to deal with people’s concerns, helping solve their worries and problems; who is genuine (being real) to be able to cope with and make real positive changes in a complicated world where making a real change is a hard job, who is a resilient fighter who has grit in her character, always being ready, fighting for and staying attached to her core values of serving the nation and the people over challenges or changes. These characteristics of her in this image are lined up with others qualities as experience and commitment with lifetime records of devoting to the nation, stamina and the ability of ‘staying the course’ and ‘the ability to deliver’, expressing her willingness to go to any length to achieve the tasks of bringing benefits to others in whatever position she takes up

Though all three images being casted for Hillary Clinton are found in the three discourses, each speaker opts for their own choice some of her outstanding qualities/identities to make more prominent, with Michelle Obama focusing more on Hillary’s image as a fighter and protector of children, Barack Obama concentrating on her image of a devoted public servant attaching to the nation’s core values and beliefs, and Bill Clinton destining his speech for portraying her image as a real person, a human being who is genuine and actually does real positive changes to lives of people including her family. And all the images converge together to advocate her as being fit to be in the position of President. Also, each speaker opted for their own way of depicting Hillary Clinton to the public and they embedded in their discourse a different message on a woman in politics. It is crystal clear that social reality as parts of our MR mediates between discourse and society, which are in a dialectical relationship.

The analysis of the use of linguistic resources and strategies shows that all these three speakers have at their disposal a wealth of repertoires. Their prominent linguistic resources and strategies are: the careful word choice, the use of metaphor, the use of material processes, the parallel structure, the rhetoric of comparison and contrast, the rhetoric of symmetric way of writing, the use of facts, famous and influential figures and the rhetoric of maximizing her strengths while barely mentioning her weakness.

This study provides further evidence of the dialectical but indirect relationship between discourse and society or social structures. Discourses are formed and operate under the constraint of social factors; but on the other hand, societal practices and social structures are affected by discourses to some extent. However, it is by far and away a direct relation. It should be seen that in this kind of indirect rapport, MR (member resources) plays an essential role. The three speakers must have enacted their power and activated their MR. Their ideologies, in this study, refer to Hillary’s images and the messages about her.

The current study highlights the role of social context as part of our MR in CDA, and how our MR is activated and deployed in critical studies. In this sense, it contributes to how our knowledge of the social context and social practices determines the workings of discourse as it offers an answer to the third research question of why such images and qualities were constructed.

12. Practical applicability, if any:

Pedagogically, this study contributes to the awareness of the role language played in sustaining or transforming social structures. Our linguistic repertoires help us express meanings and ideologies critically. As such it can offer pedagogical implications, raise critical language awareness, and lead people in the direction of social change. 

13. Further research directions, if any:

This study concerns the image construction of a female presidential candidate from the prism of her supporters, it would be exciting to conduct another study concerning other-construction by the haters or enemies of the same candidate. The bottom-line is to see whether these opposite forces would use the same discursive resources and strategies or not to construct the candidate. Another line of research would be to see how this same female presidential candidate is discursively represented or constructed in the media of different countries.

14. Thesis-related publications:

Journal articles:

1. Trần Thị Vân Thuỳ (2015). Power Relation Negotiation between Writers and Readers Embedded in Some CNN Commentaries. Journal of Science: Foreign Studies, Vol.31, No 4 (2015) 61-71

Conference proceedings:

1. Trần Thị Vân Thuỳ (2017). How is the issue of women’s empowerment illustrated in opinion pieces in two different cultures. Proceeding of ‘2017 Graduate Research Symposium’, ULIS-VNU, 593-603

2. Trần Thị Vân Thuỳ (2018). American political discourse – arguing for the importance of the female role model in the White House: A CDA approach. 2018 International Graduate Rresearch Symposium Proceedings, ULIS-VNU, 653-667

3. Trần Thị Vân Thuỳ (2019). A revision of Critical Discourse Analysis and its major approaches. 2019 International Graduate Rresearch Symposium Proceedings, ULIS-VNU, 779-790

4. Trần Thị Vân Thuỳ (2020). Discursive images of a female presidential candidate constructed in some American political discourses – A CDA approach. 2020 International Graduate Rresearch Symposium and 10th East Asia Chinese teaching forum, ULIS-VNU, 121-138