John F. Kennedy at American University: the Rhetoric of the Possible, Epideictic Progression, and the Commencement of Peace
The College of Wooster Open Works All Faculty Articles All Faculty Scholarship 2014 John F. Kennedy at American University: The Rhetoric of the Possible, Epideictic Progression, and the Commencement of Peace Denise M. Bostdorff The College of Wooster, dbostdorff@wooster.edu Shawna Ferris The College of Wooster Follow this and additional works at: https://openworks.wooster.edu/facpub 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 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the All Faculty Scholarship at Open Works, a service of The College of Wooster Libraries. This article is a(n) Accepted Manuscript and was originally published in Quarterly Journal of Speech (2014), available at https://doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2014.989895. For questions about OpenWorks, please contact openworks@wooster.edu. John F. Kennedy at American University: The Rhetoric of the Possible, Epideictic Progression, and the Commencement of Peace Denise M. Bostdorff and Shawna H. Ferris 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 USSR 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 US leadership; and (4) connected lessons on genuine peace to domestic civil rights.
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