PURE Insights Volume 4 Article 6 2015 Ellen DeGeneres' Tulane Commencement Speech: Is She Getting Through to Anybody? Ashley V. Sigl Western Oregon University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure Part of the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Sigl, Ashley V. (2015) "Ellen DeGeneres' Tulane Commencement Speech: Is She Getting Through to Anybody?," PURE Insights: Vol. 4 , Article 6. Available at: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol4/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Digital Commons@WOU. It has been accepted for inclusion in PURE Insights by an authorized editor of Digital Commons@WOU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Ellen DeGeneres' Tulane Commencement Speech: Is She Getting Through to Anybody? Abstract In this paper, I analyze the commencement speech given by Ellen DeGeneres at Tulane University in 2009. I argue that through identifying with her audience and employing a rhetorical style consisting of a careful balance between humor and tragedy as an additional factor to her use of the commencement genre style presented in Margaret LaWare’s essay, "Redefining The Good' Life': Life Lessons And Virtues In Commencement Speeches By Women,” DeGeneres is able to establish enough ethos to be seen as a highly credible source on the subject of life, and is able to resonate with her audience and make a point they perceive to be widely reasonable and sound. Keywords Ellen DeGeneres, Commencement speech, epideictic rhetoric, commencement genre, humor, tragedy, constraints, identification, ethos This article is available in PURE Insights: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/pure/vol4/iss1/6 A publication of the Program for Undergraduate Research Experiences at Western Oregon University Ellen DeGeneres' Tulane Commencement Speech: Is She Getting Through to Anybody? Ashley V.