1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910791322703321

Autore

Austermühl Frank

Titolo

The great American scaffold : intertextuality and identity in American presidential discourse / / Frank Austermühl

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amsterdam, Netherlands ; ; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : , : John Benjamins Publishing, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

90-272-7078-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (348 p.)

Collana

Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture ; ; Volume 53

Disciplina

352.23/80973

Soggetti

Discourse analysis - Political aspects

Communication in politics

Presidents - United States

Political oratory

Speeches, addresses, etc., American

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

The Great American Scaffold; Editorial page; Title page; LCC data; Table of contents; Acknowledgments; 1. American echoes - On intertextuality in American presidential discourse; 1.1 The speeches of American presidents as a cultural intertext; 1.2 POTUS speaks; 1.2.1 The rhetorical presidency; 1.2.2 Presidential rhetoric; 1.2.3 Towards presidential discourse analysis; 1.3 Hypotheses; 1.4 Theories of intertextuality; 1.4.1 Universal intertextuality; 1.4.2 Descriptive approaches to intertextuality; 1.4.3 Genette's notion of transtextuality; 1.5 A typology of presidential intertextuality

1.5.1 Forms of intertextual relations in presidential discourse 1.5.2 Functions of intertextual relations in presidential discourse; 1.6 Methodology; 1.7 Chapter overview; 2. "The voice of the nation" - The democratization of American presidential discourse; 2.1 Defining America's discursive space; 2.1.1 Reducing the distance; 2.1.2 Popularizing public discourse; 2.2 The "I" in presidency - Personal pronouns in presidential discourse; 2.2.1 Text types, congressional majorities, and the use of pronouns; 2.2.2 On priests and prophets; 2.3



On actors and interaction in presidential discourse

2.3.1 Rhetorical coalitions 2.3.2 The presidential hero; 2.3.3 On god and devil terms; 2.4 Presidential discourse and the unilateral executive; 2.4.1 From the rhetorical to the imperial presidency; 2.4.2 A presidential view of the american political system; 2.4.3 A discursive tug-of-war; 2.5 Presidential genres; 2.5.1 Campbell and Jamieson's generic theory of presidential discourse; 2.5.1.1 Rhetoric of investiture; 2.5.1.2 Rhetorical acts representing interaction with Congress; 2.5.1.3 Rhetoric of divestiture; 2.5.2 Additional presidential genres

3. "To declare to the world" - Inaugural addresses, eternal topoi, and American civil religion 3.1 The inaugural address as a presidential genre; 3.1.1 Generic elements of inaugural addresses; 3.1.2 Presidential inaugural addresses and American civil religion; 3.1.3 Civil religious themes in presidential inaugural addresses; 3.2 Analyzing presidential inaugural themes; 3.3 Thematic intertextuality in presidential inaugural addresses; 3.3.1 A quantitative theme analysis; 3.3.2 A qualitative theme analysis; 3.3.2.1 Values, anti-values, and belief and faith

3.3.2.2 Union and American sites of memory 3.3.2.3 Mission, burden, prevail, and war and military; 3.3.2.4 Continuity and change; 3.3.2.5 Government and economic success; 3.4 Inaugural themes in other presidential genres; 3.4.1 State of the Union addresses; 3.4.2 Foreign policy addresses; 3.5 American themes; 4. "Freedom and fear are at war" - The making of an American hypotext; 4.1 George W. Bush's "axis of evil" - Rhetoric or reality?; 4.1.1 Reading the "axis of evil"; 4.1.1.1 The speech's macrostructures; 4.1.1.2 Fighting freedom's fight - Three fronts and one budget

4.1.1.3 The American creed renewed

Sommario/riassunto

Based on extensive quantitative and qualitative analyses of a corpus of American presidential speeches that includes all inaugural addresses and State of the Union messages from 1789 to 2008, as well as major foreign and security policy speeches after 1945, this research monograph analyzes the various forms and functions of intertextual references found in the discourse of American presidents. Working within an original, interdisciplinary theoretical framework established by theories of intertextuality, discourse analysis, and presidential studies, the book discusses five different types of pr