Articles by Allison M. Prasch
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2019
I argue that Barack Obama’s immediate, imaginary, and discursive deictic references to the action... more I argue that Barack Obama’s immediate, imaginary, and discursive deictic references to the actions and character of ordinary citizens, specific geographical markers within the “landscape of American history,” and sacred moments in U.S. history extended and enlarged the relational, spatial, and temporal contours of the national narrative in his 2015 speech on the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In so doing, the president offered a compelling (re)definition of patriotism, civic responsibility, and “the true meaning of America.” More broadly, I argue for an expanded notion of deixis within rhetorical scholarship. Beyond a linguistic “pointing” to bodies, places, and objects within the audience’s immediate vicinity, I detail how indexicals bring various images before the eyes of the audience, link individual texts to their political, historical, social, and cultural contexts, and direct our attention to the most important parts of the national narrative even as they deflect our attention from other parts of the story. Ultimately, I suggest that deixis illuminates theories of rhetorical vision in ways that have gone unnoticed, and it is only when we recognize the psychological and cognitive effects of deictic speech that we can fully appreciate the central role phantasia plays in persuasion, deliberation, and moral judgment.
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2017
This essay traces how Ronald Reagan’s invocation of Lenny Skutnik in his 1982 State of the Union ... more This essay traces how Ronald Reagan’s invocation of Lenny Skutnik in his 1982 State of the Union address inaugurated a new generic norm for the president’s annual message to Congress. We argue that the invocation of a “Skutnik” enables presidents to display—both rhetorically and physically—the civic ideals they wish to laud, the national issues they deem important,
and policy proposals they want to advance. When U.S. presidents honor individual citizens and seat them in the House Gallery before the nation and the world, these “Skutniks” fuse the judicial, epideictic, and deliberative
characteristics of the State of the Union address. Abstract values and complicated policy agendas are simplifıed—and vivifıed—before the eyes. The body
of the “Skutnik,” we argue, is particularly persuasive because it offers a physical representation of the overall body politic, a living, breathing metaphor testifying that the state of the union is, in fact, strong.
Presidential Studies Quarterly, 2017
Richard Nixon's 1972 “opening to China” is regarded as one of the most significant moments of U.S... more Richard Nixon's 1972 “opening to China” is regarded as one of the most significant moments of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. Through his rhetoric before, during, and after his visit to the People's Republic of China, the president moved from established metaphors of communist nations and peoples as “savage enemies” and descriptions of “Red China” as a nation “lost” to communism to a narrative that suggested openness and friendship. In this essay, we argue that Nixon's use of spatial, territorial, and orientational metaphors such as “journey for peace,” “open the door,” “bridge,” “wall,” “common ground,” and “close the gulf,” compounded with his physical presence in China, are key for understanding the force of his rhetoric during this shift in U.S. Cold War foreign policy. In discursively and politically opening transnational U.S.–China relations, Nixon weakened the polarized East–West ideological and geographic divide and provided a new vision of Cold War geopolitics.
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2016
This article advances a rhetorical theory of deixis, a theoretical and methodological orientation... more This article advances a rhetorical theory of deixis, a theoretical and methodological orientation that infuses the linguistic concept of deixis with rhetorical understandings of ethos, place, and time. Deixis reveals the rhetorical dynamics within the fabric of spoken discourse, dynamics that often refer to what is outside the text to make sense of what is within it. Ultimately, I argue that identifying the deictic indicators within a speech text enables the critic to pinpoint where, how, and why a speaker activates the physical elements of the speech situation as a material means of persuasion. After outlining the theoretical tenets of this approach, I analyze Harry S. Truman's Address to the NAACP on June 29, 1947, to show how a rhetorical theory of deixis orients the critic to the bodies, places, and temporalities implied in and displayed through speech.
Voices of Democracy, 2015
This essay analyzes two speeches delivered by President Ronald Reagan on June 6, 1984, within the... more This essay analyzes two speeches delivered by President Ronald Reagan on June 6, 1984, within the broader context of Reagan's Cold War foreign policy rhetoric. In his remarks at Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach, Reagan provided a vivid narrative of D-Day and applied the moral lessons of World War II to the present Cold War struggle between U.S. democracy and Soviet communism. In this essay, I analyze both speeches—Reagan's address at Pointe du Hoc and his
remarks at Omaha Beach—as independent and yet interrelated rhetorical moments within
Reagan's larger Cold War foreign policy narrative. Both speeches exemplify Reagan’s common
themes of U.S. patriotism, moral resolve, and commitment to the Western democratic alliance.
I first describe how Reagan's speeches on the fortieth anniversary of D-Day echoed themes
from his 1982 Address to the British Parliament and his 1983 speech to the National Association
of Evangelicals. I then analyze each speech separately, drawing on the archives of the Reagan
Library to illuminate the White House's goals for Reagan's remarks and showing how those
goals were manifested in the speeches themselves through a close reading of both texts.
Southern Communication Journal, 2015
In this article, I analyze the text of the Nixon Library’s original Watergate exhibit as Richard ... more In this article, I analyze the text of the Nixon Library’s original Watergate exhibit as Richard Nixon’s final attempt to speak in his own defense and eulogize his political life. To do this, the gallery narrative divided the events of Watergate into a series of small, seemingly unrelated events that the liberal media and congressional Democrats used to undermine the president. At the same time, the text portrayed Nixon as an active leader defending the executive branch from congressional and judicial overreach. This analysis shows how Nixon relied on rhetorical strategies of differentiation and transcendence to resuscitate his status as elder statesman. It also suggests that critics should consider the apologic potential of other memorial sites, particularly presidential libraries.
Women's Studies in Communication, 2015
This essay analyzes how Leymah Gbowee and other Liberia Mass Action for Peace (LMAP) activists dr... more This essay analyzes how Leymah Gbowee and other Liberia Mass Action for Peace (LMAP) activists drew on the cultural power of African motherhood to engage in militant protest. Framing the movement as one motivated by a concern for their children, these women employed three specific rhetorical tactics to demand an end to the fourteen-year civil war: (1) repositioning women and children as the war’s real victims; (2) threatening to bare their bodies in deliberate public nakedness; and (3) constituting the political agency of ordinary women both in Liberia and around the world. These militant maternal protests positioned the LMAP activists as coherent political agents empowered by their literal and symbolic participation in Liberian performances of African motherhood. Their actions suggest the rhetorical potential of militant maternal protests in countries that exclude women from political involvement.
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2015
President Ronald Reagan’s June 6, 1984, “Address on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day” is one of his ... more President Ronald Reagan’s June 6, 1984, “Address on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day” is one of his most celebrated speeches, and yet no critical assessment of the address exists in rhetorical scholarship. In this essay, I examine this speech as a deictic epideictic address, or a speech in which the rhetor uses the physical place, the immediate scene / setting, and the assembled audience as evidence to commemorate the past and chart a clear course for the future. Through this analysis, I argue that Reagan’s speech at Pointe du Hoc is exemplary because it relies on rhetorical vision and deixis to connect a past moment to the present, and in so doing, invites the audience to participate in the discourse emotionally, mentally, and even physically. I conclude by suggesting that a deictic approach to rhetorical criticism offers scholars a vocabulary to describe how speakers can “point” or refer to the physical and material elements of a speech setting as evidence.
Book Reviews by Allison M. Prasch
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2015
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2014
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2013
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Articles by Allison M. Prasch
and policy proposals they want to advance. When U.S. presidents honor individual citizens and seat them in the House Gallery before the nation and the world, these “Skutniks” fuse the judicial, epideictic, and deliberative
characteristics of the State of the Union address. Abstract values and complicated policy agendas are simplifıed—and vivifıed—before the eyes. The body
of the “Skutnik,” we argue, is particularly persuasive because it offers a physical representation of the overall body politic, a living, breathing metaphor testifying that the state of the union is, in fact, strong.
remarks at Omaha Beach—as independent and yet interrelated rhetorical moments within
Reagan's larger Cold War foreign policy narrative. Both speeches exemplify Reagan’s common
themes of U.S. patriotism, moral resolve, and commitment to the Western democratic alliance.
I first describe how Reagan's speeches on the fortieth anniversary of D-Day echoed themes
from his 1982 Address to the British Parliament and his 1983 speech to the National Association
of Evangelicals. I then analyze each speech separately, drawing on the archives of the Reagan
Library to illuminate the White House's goals for Reagan's remarks and showing how those
goals were manifested in the speeches themselves through a close reading of both texts.
Book Reviews by Allison M. Prasch
and policy proposals they want to advance. When U.S. presidents honor individual citizens and seat them in the House Gallery before the nation and the world, these “Skutniks” fuse the judicial, epideictic, and deliberative
characteristics of the State of the Union address. Abstract values and complicated policy agendas are simplifıed—and vivifıed—before the eyes. The body
of the “Skutnik,” we argue, is particularly persuasive because it offers a physical representation of the overall body politic, a living, breathing metaphor testifying that the state of the union is, in fact, strong.
remarks at Omaha Beach—as independent and yet interrelated rhetorical moments within
Reagan's larger Cold War foreign policy narrative. Both speeches exemplify Reagan’s common
themes of U.S. patriotism, moral resolve, and commitment to the Western democratic alliance.
I first describe how Reagan's speeches on the fortieth anniversary of D-Day echoed themes
from his 1982 Address to the British Parliament and his 1983 speech to the National Association
of Evangelicals. I then analyze each speech separately, drawing on the archives of the Reagan
Library to illuminate the White House's goals for Reagan's remarks and showing how those
goals were manifested in the speeches themselves through a close reading of both texts.