عنوان

The metonym of mystery: Representations of clandestine service in American presidential rhetoric

Number

TL48350

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

The metonym of mystery: Representations of clandestine service in American presidential rhetoric

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

David James Berver

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

ORNATOWSKI, CEZAR

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

San Diego State University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2015

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

111

Text of Note

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-94144-9

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

M.A.

Discipline of degree

Rhetoric and Writing

Body granting the degree

San Diego State University

Text preceding or following the note

2015

Text of Note

The Edward Snowden leaks caused President Barack Obama to defend intelligence organizations, but this was not the first time a President spoke in defense of clandestine organizations. With a viewpoint based in Kenneth Burke's dramatism and classical rhetoric, this thesis evaluates what these speeches say about the relationship between the American people and their government. The focus is on a historical trajectory of how the metonym of government is constructed, starting with Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Statement by the President regarding U-2 incident" in 1960, continuing with John Fitzgerald Kennedy's "The President and the Press" in 1961, then moving on to Ronald Reagan's "Address to the Nation on Iran-Contra" in 1987, before ending with Barack Obama's "Remarks by the President on Review of Signals Intelligence" in 2014. This thesis theorizes that due to the increasing amount of information inequality experienced by citizens, Presidential speeches about state secrecy have shifted from Burkean pragmatism to Burkean idealism, and as a result has shifted from an Aristotelean conception of rhetoric to a Platonic conception of rhetoric. This thesis finds that national security, once represented as a concern for everyone, has become represented as a concern for only a small section of the American populace. Specifically, state secrecy functions to make it so that only a select subset of the American people can legitimately interact with national security.

Rhetoric

Subject Term

Language, literature and linguistics

Lyons, Sarah Louise

ORNATOWSKI, CEZAR

Subdivision

Rhetoric and Writing

San Diego State University

Call Number

1708973107; 1595328

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y