Publication Date
2014
Document Type
Article
Journal Article Version
Accepted Manuscript
Volume
100
Issue
4
Abstract
In his American University address, Kennedy employed epideictic progression, a pedagogical process drawing upon dissociation and epideictic norms to convince listeners, gradually, to embrace a new vision—in this case, a world in which a test-ban treaty with the U.S.S.R. was possible. To do so, Kennedy's words: (1) united the audience behind the value of “genuine peace”; (2) humanized the Soviets as worthy partners in genuine peace; (3) established the reality of the Cold War and the credibility of U.S. leadership; and (4) connected lessons on genuine peace to domestic civil rights.
Keywords
John F. Kennedy, epideictic, dissociation, war, peace
Recommended Citation
Bostdorff, Denise M. and Ferris, Shawna, "John F. Kennedy at American University: The Rhetoric of the Possible, Epideictic Progression, and the Commencement of Peace" (2014). Quarterly Journal of Speech, 100(4), 407-441. 10.1080/00335630.2014.989895. Retrieved from https://openworks.wooster.edu/facpub/239