冷战早期美国国家形象塑造研究综述

A Review of Studies on the American National Image Making during the Cold War

美国国家形象塑造作为冷战史研究的一个重要问题,近年来备受学界关注。学者们有意识地运用跨学科路径,将历史考据与文本解读和话语分析有机结合起来,对美国总体形象构建、国内特定群体形象塑造、利用特定媒介(实景展示媒介、传统纸质媒介和电子视听媒介)进行国家形象塑造以及美国身份的自我形塑或他者建构等四个方面展开深入研究,从而极大地拓展了美国冷战史的研究视域,有助于我们更多地考察作为软实力维度的国家形象话语或象征因素在冷战中的独特作用,进而深刻理解美国国家形象、海外身份认同与现行外交之间的关系。当然,鉴于该问题既深且广,学者们在国家形象概念界定及其作用、美国冷战宣传(心理)战略与国家形象塑造战略之间的互动关系、国家形象修辞与冷战机制变革的相互作用、国际交流活动在美国海外形象(身份)建构中的复杂角色、效果评价等问题上仍然需要继续深入探究。

The American national image making has been paid more and more attention by scholars in the recent years.Scholars combine textual research with discourse analysis and focus on the following four topics:the overall U.S.image-building,the image construction of some of its domestic groups,the particular medium(live display media,traditional print media and electronic audio-visual media)used to construct its national image,and the self-shaping of the national identity or the construction of the otherness.The topics greatly expand the American cold war history field,and help us examine how the U.S.image discourses or symbols served for its soft power in the cold war.Furthermore,they help us understand the relationship between the U.S.national image,overseas identity and its current diplomacy.But scholars should go further to study the definition of the American national image,the relationship between its cold war propaganda and the national image making,the interaction between the national image rhetoric and its cold war institutional reform,the complex role played by the U.S.international communication in its international image construction,and so on.