Place,Genre,and Polyphony in Barack Obama’s Election Night Address

Abstract

Barack Obama’s election night address was rhetorically effective. He strategically departed from the norms of the victory speak genre insofar as he moved it outside the usual hotel ballroom and thereby significantly enlarged (and broadened) the audience. He did not, however, take it to just any place; he took it to Chicago’s Grant Park, a place with negative political associations because of the events that occurred there in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Obama thereby redeemed the place and restored the idealism and hope that had been dashed there 40 years before. Obama also echoed Lincoln; Kennedy; Clinton; and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, creating a polyphony that evoked both struggles and a hope that all could be overcome.

Keywords

Obama victory speech Grant Park Chicago place Bakhtin polyphony Lincoln Kennedy King 1968 Democratic National Convention

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