Title: Oratorical style and performance in the epideictic speeches of American presidents
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2014, vol. 40, iss. 1, pp. [227]-241
Extent
[227]-241
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2014-1-11
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/131490
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Epideictic speeches have often tended to be overlooked in rhetorical studies as texts that are merely ornamental in nature and function; however, their apparent innocuousness may conceal a subtle, cumulative role in political persuasion and consensus-formation. This article discusses the rhetorical style of epideictic memorial speeches by American presidents. Drawing on rhetorical scholars from Aristotle to Jakobson and Burke, the author considers the poetic function of language. In epideixis, there is a strong rhetorical integration of text, audience, performance and environment. Even in prosaic political contexts, language can be deployed poetically, and linguistic choices by political speakers contribute to the evaluation by the audience of a speaker's charisma. Using memorial speeches as an example of literary/non-literary hybridity, the author observes that the key persuasive element in epideixis is its poetic predictability.
References
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[2] Burgess, Theodore C. (1902) Epideictic Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[3] Burke, Kenneth (1945) A Grammar of Motives. New York: Prentice Hall
[4] Burke, Kenneth (1966) Language as Symbolic Action. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
[5] Charteris-Black, Jonathan (2005) Politicians and Rhetoric. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
[6] Chase, J. Richard (1961) "The classical conception of epideictic". Quarterly Journal of Speech 47, 293–300. | DOI 10.1080/00335636109382490
[7] Emrich, Cynthia, Holly Brower, Jack Feldman and Howard Garland (2001) "Images in words: presidential rhetoric, charisma and greatness". Administrative Science Quarterly, 46, 527–557. | DOI 10.2307/3094874
[8] Fiol, C. Marlene, Drew Harris and Robert House (1999) "Charismatic leadership: strategies for effecting social change". Leadership Quarterly 10, 449–482. | DOI 10.1016/S1048-9843(99)00021-1
[9] Fisher, Walter (1970) "A motive view of communication". Quarterly Journal of Speech 56 (2), 131–139. | DOI 10.1080/00335637009382994
[10] Fisher, Walter and Stephen O'Leary (1996) "The rhetorician's quest". In: Salwen, Michael and Don Stacks (2008) An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 246–260.
[11] Fónagy, Ivan (1963) Die Metaphern in der Phonetik: Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Wissenschaftlichen Denkens. The Hague, NL: Mouton & Co.
[12] Fónagy, Ivan (1965) "Form and function of poetic language". Diogenes 51. Retrieved from http:// dio.sagepub.com.
[13] Foucault, Michel (1970) The Order of Things. London: Tavistock.
[14] Funch, Bjarne (2007) "A psychological theory of the aesthetic experience". In: Dorfman, Leonid, Colin Martindale and Vladimir Petrov (eds.) Aesthetics and Innovation. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 3–19.
[15] Goffman, Erving (1959) The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Doubleday.
[16] Hall, Stuart (1980) "Encoding/Decoding". In: Hall, Stuart, Dorothy Hobson, Andrew Lowe and Paul Willis (eds.) Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972–79. London: Hutchinson, 507–517.
[17] House, Robert J. and Boas Shamir (1993) "Toward the integration of transformational, charismatic and visionary theories of leadership". In: Cherners, Martin and Roya Ayman (eds.) Leadership: Perspectives and Research Directions. New York: Academic Press, 81–107.
[18] Jakobson, Roman (1942) Lectures on Sound and Meaning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[19] Jakobson, Roman and Morris Halle (1956) Fundamentals of Language. The Hague and Paris: Mouton.
[20] Jakobson, Roman (1960) "Introduction to Linguistics and poetics". In: Sebeok, Thomas A. (ed.) Style in Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 350–377.
[21] Kövecses, Zoltan (2002) Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[22] Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
[23] Lakoff, George (2004) Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. White River Junction VT: Chelsea Green.
[24] Leech, Geoff (1969) A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. London: Longman.
[25] Martindale, Colin (1975) Romantic Progression: The Psychology of Literary History. Washington DC: Hemisphere.
[26] McQuarrie, Edward F. and David Mick (1992) "On resonance: a critical pluralistic inquiry into advertising rhetoric", Journal of Consumer Research 19 (3), 180–197. | DOI 10.1086/209295
[27] van Peer, Willie, Frank Hakemulder and Sonia Zyngier (2007) "Lines on feeling: foregrounding, aesthetics and meaning". Language and Literature 16, 197–215.
[28] Perelman, Chaim and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca (1969) The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
[29] Prelli, Lawrence J. (2006) (ed.) Rhetorics of Display. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
[30] Quintilian (1920–22) Institutio Oratoria. Translated by Harold Butler. Loeb Classical Library.
[31] Rollins, Brooke (2005) The ethics of epideictic rhetoric: addressing the problem of presence through Derrida's funeral orations" Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 35 (1), 5–24. | DOI 10.1080/02773940509391301
[32] Samuels, Michael L. (1972) Linguistic Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[33] de Saussure, Ferdinand (1977[1916]) Course in General Linguistics. Glasgow: Fontana/Collins.
[34] Simpson, Paul (2004) Stylistics: A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge.
[35] Slavíčková, Tess (2013) "The rhetoric of remembrance: presidential Memorial Day speeches". Discourse and Society 24 (3), 361–379. | DOI 10.1177/0957926512471762
[36] Vico, Giambattista (1968) The New Science. Translated by Thomas Bergin and Max Finch. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
[37] White, Hayden (1978) Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press
[38] Wilden, Anthony (1987) The Rules Are No Game: The Strategy of Communication. London: Routledge.