The aim of this course is to understand and analyze the great speeches belonging to social and political area. We will explore a range of composition writing and media communication tools that politicians and influential personalities use to devise worth remembering and incisive discourses. Studying the speech making process and analyzing the selected political speeches will let the students handle those instruments useful to investigate any “political” (in a broader sense) discourse.
Benveniste, E. 1971 Problems in General Linguistics. Miami: University of Miami Press
(p. 223-230).
Ivie, R. 1980 "Images of Savagery in American Justifications for War", Communication
Monographs 47: 279-294.
Kövecses, Z. 2010 Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford: 3-11, 17-31,
369-375.
Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson 1980 Metaphors We Live By, Chicago, University of Chicago
Press: ix-x, 3-45, 102-167, 192-193.
Lakoff, G. 2008 The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist's Guide to Your Brain and Its
Politics, New York, Penguin: Ch. 1, 4, 17.
Lakoff, G. 1995 "Metaphor, Morality, and Politics, Or, Why Conservatives Have Left
Liberals in the Dust" in Social Research 62 (2): 177-214.
Orwell, G. 1946. "Politics and the English Language" in Horizon 13 (Apr): 252-264.
Orwell, G. 1984 “Appendix: the Principles of Newspeak”, any paperback edition.
Schiappa, E. 1989 "The Rhetoric of Nukespeak" in Communication Monographs 56 (3): 253-272.
Van Dijk, T. 1995 "Discourse Semantics and Ideology", in Discourse & Society 6 (2): 243-289.
Van Dijk, T. 1997 "What is Political Discourse Analysis?" in Blommaert, Jan and Chris
Bulcaen (eds.) Political Linguistics, Amsterdam, Benjamins: 11-52.
FURTHER READINGS
Fairclough, N. L. 1995 Critical Discourse Analysis, The Critical Study of Language,
London, Longman.
Fairclough, N. L. 1989, Language and Power, London, Longman.
Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson, 1980, Metaphors We Live By, Chicago, University of Chicago
Press.
Lakoff, G. 2009, The Political Mind. London, Penguin.
Van Dijk, T. 1985, Handbook of Discourse Analysis, London, Academic Press.
Yunus, M. 1997, Banker to the Poor, New York, PublicAffairs.
Learning Objectives - Last names A-L
Political speech analysis, study of narrative strategies along with ideology and conceptual metaphors as well as rhetorical and lingustic account.
Prerequisites - Last names A-L
B2 certificate before to sit the exam.
Teaching Methods - Last names A-L
Lectures, classroom exercises and assignments, mid-term exam, group/individual presentations.
Further information - Last names A-L
Office hours (during class time)
Wednesdays 10:15AM-12:00PM
D1/001
See the notice board on the web for updated office hours.
You may also email to: andrea.tarantola@unifi.it
Type of Assessment - Last names A-L
Written exam
Course program - Last names A-L
Module I – telling narratives
(1) J.K. Rowling’s The fringe benefits of failure and the importance of imagination, Harvard Commencement Speech, June 5, 2008, Harvard, Cambridge, Boston MA;
(2) Steve Jobs’ Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish Commencement Address, June 12, 2005, Stanford University Stanford, Stanford CA;
(3) Muhammad Yunus’ Poverty is a threat to Peace, Nobel Lecture, December 10, 2006, Oslo, Norway;
Module II – we are at war
(1) Richard Nixon, Vietnamization, November 3, 1969
(2) Winston Churchill, Be ye men of valour, May 19, 1940,
(3) George VI, King's speech, September 3, 1939
(4) George W. Bush, Address to the nation, September 11, 2001
Module III – roads to the future
(1) Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Speech as State President, May 10, 1994, Pretoria.
(2) Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream”, August 28, 1963, Washington DC.
(3) John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Ich bin ein Berliner, 1963, West Berlin, West Germany