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Description
This research conducts two methods of rhetorical analysis of State of the Union Addresses: 1. Computational linguistic analysis of all State of the Union Addresses from 1790-2007, and 2. Close-readings and rhetorical analyses of two addresses: one by President Truman and one by President Reagan. This research shows the following key findings: 1. I am able to see general shifts in the authors' approaches to the State of the Union Address through historical computational analyses of the content of all speeches, and 2. Through close readings, I can understand the impact of the author's ethos and the historical context on the addresses, something that would not be readily revealed in a computational analysis. This study starts with a historical computational linguistic analysis of all State of the Union Addresses between 1790 and 2007. The study follows with close-readings of two State of the Union Addresses from the early and late Cold War period in-context: 1. Harry Truman's 1951 Address and 2. Ronald Reagan's 1986 Address. The main conclusions drawn from this research are that close-readings of State of the Union Addresses cannot be replaced by computational analyses, but can work in tandem with computerized text analysis to reveal shifts in rhetorical and topical features. This paper argues that there must be more close analyses in coordination with large-scale text analysis in order to understand the complexities of rhetorical situations.
ContributorsWegner, Peter (Author) / Goggin, Maureen (Thesis advisor) / Boyd, Patricia (Committee member) / Goggin, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This thesis examines the rhetorical relationship between migrant death and American culture, with an emphasis on how postmortem treatment of the deceased gives shape to anti-migrant attitudes. By isolating one instance of death on the border and considering the discourse that ensued in the following two months, this research assesses mechanisms of a rhetoric of death (necrorhetoric) as they relate to sociopolitical constructions of the migrant. The political apparatus of the State as a natural extension of biopower confers upon it the authority to produce sacred life or bare life (homo sacer). This process of production creates conditions of being which precede the potential to kill without allegation of murder, constructs the content of sovereign power, and results in a social sense-making, or public doxa, that informs cultural values and justifies collective attitudes. As the process is perfected, meticulous and calculated demonstrations of force become a crucial exercise of sovereignty. Efforts to enforce and maintain control of the border develop into increasingly streamlined methods, placing the state on an incremental trajectory of power that inaugurates ritualized and state sanctioned violence. The aggrieved take on a sociopolitical role that renders their lives less than fully human, allowing further alienation and segregation to occur. The desire to maintain sovereign power is the typifying force around which United States history has been shaped, and this desire continues to inform contemporary American policy. Analysis of legal, presidential, and news documents pertaining to the deaths of Oscar Martinez Ramirez and his twenty-three-month-old daughter, Valeria, reveals a network of rhetorical maneuvering that gives evidence of a necropolitical environment defined by its intentional and obscure brutality.
ContributorsBaumann, Natalie (Author) / Goggin, Maureen (Thesis advisor) / Long, Elenore (Committee member) / Miller, Keith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020