‘Does Anyone Know I Own a House in Charlottesville?’
‘Does Anyone Know I Own a House in Charlottesville?’
Donald Trump’s Epideictic Rhetoric
Author(s): Tess SlavíčkováSubject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Communication studies, Politics and society
Published by: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Fakulta sociálních věd
Keywords: epideixis/epideictic; Trump; Charlottesville; rhetoric; dramaturgy;
Summary/Abstract: Epideixis is commonly defined as rhetoric that seeks to attribute praise or blame, and reaffirmor reformulate community values. Key to its rhetorical ‘success’ with media audiencesis its ornamental function and performative power rather than its informative content.This case study focuses on Donald Trump’s rhetoric following the Charlottesville protests in2017, along a short narrative timeline of a few days. His style might be designated as a distinctive‘populist rhetoric’, contravening some political speechmaking norms. The paperintegrates analysis of sample sections of the Charlottesville speeches with Celeste Condit’s(1985) ‘functional pairs’, namely, definition/understanding; shaping/sharing the community;and display/entertainment.The study concludes that Trump’s media performance following Charlottesville representsa presidential evasion of the explicit requirements of epideictic rhetoric, and thereby, a consequentialfailure to provide non-partisan comfort and social unity at a pivotal politicalmoment.
Journal: Mediální studia
- Issue Year: 17/2023
- Issue No: 01
- Page Range: 54-71
- Page Count: 18
- Language: English
