“Anyone Can Be President”: Figures of Speech, Cultural Forms, and Performance

Chris Holcomb

doi:10.1080/02773940600865305

Rhetoric Society Quarterly Dec 2006

“Anyone Can Be President”: Figures of Speech, Cultural Forms, and Performance

Chris Holcomb University of South Carolina

Abstract

This article argues that figures of speech are cultural forms that serve performative ends. After introducing this claim through an analysis of a Daily Show segment, the article reexamines treatments of the figures in Aristotle, Quintilian, and Peacham, claiming that these verbal devices are rituals of language that organize social experience while shaping relationships among communicative participants. The article then examines George W. Bush's address to Congress shortly after 9/11, and an article by John Edgar Wideman. Although Bush uses the figures in conventional ways, Wideman challenges the use of such rituals of language to shape public opinion in the wake of 9/11.

Journal: Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published: 2006-12-15
DOI: 10.1080/02773940600865305
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: classical rhetoric
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“Anyone Can Be President”: Figures of Speech, Cultural Forms, and Performance

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

References (20) · 1 in this index

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