Objective and Subjective Evidence for Political Reality
in Autobiographical Discourse
The article surveys peculiarities of a political language personality’s autobiographical discourse. Through the analysis of the autobiographical discourse, the specific features of the genre are revealed; its peculiarities in objectifying political reality are detected. The study material is a book of memoirs «Decision Points» by the 43d President of the USA George W. Bush, in which he describes landmark events in his personal and professional life and tries to explain what or who moved him forward in choosing complicated and provocative routes. In the analyses the author identifies genre-forming features of works, as well as the features in the objectification of political reality. The politician’s memoirs are distinguished not through accurate narration of factual evidence as much as through the aim to develop a certain view of the historical period in the reader and through the desire to cultivate a certain opinion in them. For this reason the reminiscent must strike an ideal balance in supplying objective and subjective evidence. A combination of unprejudiced narration and personal considerations, the author’s reflections on his reasons for decision-making, admission of guilt and not being right in some crucial moments add to the emotional disposition of the text and make it more convincing. Pragmatic actuality is achieved through rendering historical and famous facts, dates, and contemporary records. Within this article the onomastic space of G.W. Bush’s memoirs has ben analysed, which helps to reveal that most of the onyms (anthroponyms, zoonyms, chrematonyms, ethnonyms, socionyms, ergonyms, toponyms) and to testify to their credibility. The conclusion is made that the objective evidence is exposed to careful selection and is to accord with the pragmatic intention of the subject of reminiscence; the subjective evidence allows to fill the text with emotional substance and to plunge the reader in the thick of things.