Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Communication

Hollins University

Conference

2013

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Playing Politics With Rape: Republican Apologia In The 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, Kelsey Deforest Apr 2013

Playing Politics With Rape: Republican Apologia In The 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, Kelsey Deforest

Hollins Student Conference (2012-2016)

During the second half of 2012, heightened scrutiny was applied to Republican politicians’ discussion of sexual assault. This wave of interrogation, though, began too late to affect the debates over the 2012 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. This paper will problematize these debates by analyzing the rhetoric of self-defense used by Republican legislators in the House of Representatives to defend their VAWA Reauthorization bill. By applying a feminist critical discourse analysis to the final VAWA Reauthorization debate held on May 16, 2012, this paper shows that the actions of the Republican legislators are rooted in a desire to protect the …


A Style Of His Own: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama, Victoria West Apr 2013

A Style Of His Own: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama, Victoria West

Hollins Student Conference (2012-2016)

This paper analyzes President Obama’s rhetoric in his two inaugural addresses in order to determine how his presidential rhetoric conforms to and violates current rhetorical traditions in inaugural addresses. For this paper a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s addresses was performed using a form of genre criticism. The components for this genre criticism were drawn from Vanessa B. Beasley’s work on presidential rhetoric in her book You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric. Anticipated results of this analysis will show that President Obama’s presidential rhetoric is more secular than previous presidents. The results will also illustrate that President Obama’s …