Copyright by Matthew Bruce Ingram 2018
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Copyright by Matthew Bruce Ingram 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Matthew Bruce Ingram Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: The Mimesis of Character in Political Rally Speeches: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Campaign Committee: Jürgen Streeck, Supervisor Madeline Maxwell Barry Brummett Kira Hall ii The Mimesis of Character in Political Rally Speeches: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Campaign by Matthew Bruce Ingram Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2018 iii Acknowledgments I carefully crafted and revised this dissertation over several years, and it would not have been possible without the endearing support of my colleagues, friends, and family. I am grateful to those of you who have helped me foster my academic creativity, pushed me to better my scholarship and writing, and empowered me by sharing their own research and lives with me on this journey. I am indebted to Dr. Jürgen Streeck for continuing to support me and my ideas throughout my time at The University of Texas at Austin. As my dissertation supervisor, Jürgen, and his rigorous scholarship and poetic writing continue to inspire me as a scholar. I am most thankful for Jürgen's patience and understanding of the writing process, as well as our philosophical and research conversations that have ignited various courses of inquiry. His unwavering support for my research and his constructive criticism have made my scholarship possible and have fomented in me a deep passion for the study of social interaction. I am tremendously thankful to my mentor and supervisor at The University of Colorado at Boulder, Dr. Kira Hall, who helped me develop as a scholar throughout all of our inspiring conversations and collaborations. Her advice on valuing the critiques of other researchers has been invaluable and has certainly helped me to become a well-rounded scholar. She has always believed in my scholarship and academic abilities, and for that, I am grateful. I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Madeline Maxwell for all she has helped me to achieve here at The University of Texas at Austin. Because of Dr. Maxwell and her mentorship through The University of Texas Project on Conflict Resolution (UTPCR), I was involved in UT organizations and conferences, met various scholars around the world, and developed my professional communication skills. I am so thankful for her encouragement to pursue interdisciplinary projects that have broadened the scope of my scholarship. Finally, I am grateful to Dr. Barry Brummett, who has mentored me in rhetorical theories throughout my transition from linguistics to communication studies. This transition would not have been possible–nor nearly as smooth–without your expert guidance. The depth of his scholarship and eloquent writing style serves as an exemplary model for all aspiring writers. Beyond my committee members, I cannot stress how appreciative I am of the Communication Studies staff and other faculty members. I could not have completed this dissertation without the advice of Jennifer Betancourt, Lisa Moseley, Aida Gonzalez, and Dr. Sharon Jarvis, all of whom aided me along the way. I want to extend my thanks to the Moody College of Communication Technology Services and custodial staff, both of whom provided me with the necessary space and equipment to accomplish long writing sessions. Special thanks are also due to my research and data session group whose input included fantastic voices from Jürgen Streeck, Elizabeth Keating, Katie Bradford, Julia Katila, Evgenia Wilkins, Wen Hu, Eryn Whitworth, Niaz Aziz, and Enhua Guo. And finally, I am thankful to my colleagues, friends, family, and partner. Writing a dissertation can be a very isolating process, but my father, stepfather, mother, and brothers have all continued to cheer me on. I would also like to give special thanks to Dr. Allison Alford, a friend and colleague, who, no matter how tough times were, continued to text and call me, kindheartedly demanding updates. Also, I am incredibly grateful to my friend and colleagues, Ian Wallace, who illustrated all the images for my data examples, as well as, Marvanna Avery-Cash, who provided me with her expertise in theater and performance studies. And to my partner, Peter Koester, I could iv not have written this dissertation without your support, understanding, and continued belief in me and my work. Thank you to all those who made this dissertation possible. v Abstract The Mimesis of Character in Political Rally Speeches: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Campaign Matthew Bruce Ingram, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Jürgen Streeck Compelling microanalytic studies of audio-visual recordings of speeches have shown that political orators share culturally recognizable rhetorical techniques to invite an audience to respond favorably. Of these message formats (contrasts, lists, puzzle-solution, headline punch line, and pursuits), quotations are rarely discussed, despite their significance in politics. Although interaction-based scholars have researched how politicians quote the voice and bodies of characters in their speeches, these interaction-based studies exclude embodied communication. This dissertation aims to contribute to microanalytic studies of political communication by analyzing the rhetorical delivery methods and skillfulness of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as they take on the role of characters in their 2016 presidential campaign speeches. When delivering speeches, these two competitors evoked voices and bodies of others, using different mimetic devices to establish intimacy, create depictive vividness of characters, and to denigrate the moral character of their opponents. An investigative analysis of one hundred randomly-sampled speeches exposes the significance of the visual rhetoric employed by Trump and Clinton in their storytelling which enabled them to adopt, enact, and construct moralized worldviews. I build on Herbert Clark’s (1996, 2010) theory of quotations as demonstrations, arguing that politicians use mimetic acts to depict characters, keep audiences engaged, and collaboratively spoil the image of their adversaries. To substantiate my argument, I examine several empirical extracts that illustrate the moment-to-moment performances of Clinton and Trump as they animate and individuate characters through quoting practices. Interaction-based methods (microanalysis and conversation analytic techniques) enabled me to compare and scrutinize the rhetorical skillfulness of Clinton and Trump’s animation techniques and repeated stories, providing a more comprehensive picture for why more mimetic techniques of animating or demonstrating a character’s personality can be beneficial to orators. My finding suggests that Clinton utilizes more diegetic, descriptive tactics of storytelling intended to create to the illusion that she is objectively reporting the words and actions of heroic or authority figures as a means of lending credibility to her attack on adversaries. While vi Trump creates intelligible caricatures of his adversaries alongside his audiences to discredit the American political system. vii Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... X LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... XI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 OVERVIEW ...............................................................................................................................1 RHETORICAL THEORIES OF SPEAKER-AUDIENCE INTERACTIONS AND THE ORATOR’S USE OF MIMESIS ...................................................................................................................................3 OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION ............................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER 2: CREATING CHARACTERS IN SOCIAL INTERACTION ....................... 15 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 15 SOME INITIAL CAUTIONS IN EXPLORING MIMESIS ................................................................... 17 THE TRADITION OF MIMESIS AT FIRST GLANCE....................................................................... 19 CLASSICAL NOTIONS OF MIMESIS ........................................................................................... 19 Plato’s Prescriptive Philosophy of Dramatic Impersonation in Poetry .............................. 19 Aristotle’s Descriptive Philosophy of Mimetic Enactments ................................................ 25 HOW DO ACTORS MAKE CHARACTERS “HEARABLE?” ............................................................ 28 Quoting as an Act of Mimesis ............................................................................................ 29 Perspectival (Mimetic) Montages ...................................................................................... 33 Constructed