Analysing Political Speeches: Rhetoric, Discourse and Metaphor

Bol

Exploring speeches by public figures such as Emma Watson, Tony Blair, Donald Trump, Julia Gillard and Lady Gaga, this engaging textbook explains the ways in which political speeches can be analysed. It examines the role of language in speeches and how it can be used to challenge or reinforce prevailing social, cultural and political attitudes. Each chapter introduces a particular discourse approach and then applies this in a model analysis of a passage of text. The chosen texts concern issues of social, cultural and political importance that address topics of significant importance to the audience to which they were delivered. Students are encouraged to engage with the text and consider how approaches to text analysis, such as cohesion, context analysis and metaphor analysis, may be adapted to provide a more critical perspective. This text will be essential reading for students of English language, linguistics, communication studies and politics on critical discourse and discourse analysis modules.

Bol Partner

Considers how traditional approaches such as cohesion and classical rhetoric may be integrated with 'critical' approaches to discourse analysis such as critical metaphor analysis. Presents a range of critical and discourse theories and considers the relationships between linguistic features of speeches and their social and cultural contexts.