Publication detail

Nation of Futurity or Retrotopia? American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric Since 2000

Year: 2025

Type of publication: ostatní - přednáška nebo poster

Publisher name: Universidad de Valladolid, Spain

Page from-to: nestránkováno

Titles:

Language	Name	Abstract	Keywords
eng	Nation of Futurity or Retrotopia? American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric Since 2000	This paper examines the evolution of American national identity as articulated through presidential rhetoric in State of the Union addresses and Inauguration speeches from 2000 to the present. By analyzing the speeches of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, this study explores how each administration has navigated the themes of inclusivity, exclusivity, and the notion of “true” Americanness. Through a detailed rhetorical analysis grounded in political discourse analysis as well as in Aristotle’s classic concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos, this paper aims to uncover how these presidential speeches construct and reconstruct the boundaries of (un)belonging, boundedness, rootedness, in-between-ness, and exclusion in American society. Specifically, the study focuses on the inclusive and exclusive ethos, transnationalism and isolationism, and the evolving notions of true Americanness identity formation, compared to previous national identity narratives as identified by Andrew Hartmann in his work A War for the Soul of America. Ultimately, this study seeks to demonstrate how presidential rhetoric shapes national identity in contemporary America, highlighting a contemporary significant shift in the constructions and representations of Americanness, characterized by a nationalist, isolationist, and, to use Zygmunt Bauman’s term, retrotopic tone that often invokes nostalgic longing for a past greatness.	presidential rhetoric; American national identity; G. W. Bush; B. Obama; D. Trump; J. Biden; retrotopia

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