A Critical Discourse Study of Hillary Clinton's 2015/2016 Presidential Campaign Discourses

Jakobsen, Ida Koch ; Jensen, Ida ; Pichler, Lonnie Helene

4. term

English, Master

2016

2016-05-30

188 pages

In the light of the 2016 American presidential election, the thesis uncovers underlying discursive structures in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign discourse. This is done through the use of the theory and methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis and corpus linguistics. The specific aim is to identify elements of gender references, persuasive techniques and social inclusion and exclusion. The primary analysis (with focus on Clinton’s Campaign Launch Speech from June 2015) shows that the campaign launch discourse relies heavily on constructed frames, such as the family frame and the battle frame. Furthermore, gender references are marked by implicitness, and Clinton performs both stereotypical masculine and feminine genders. Also, we found elements of rhetorical tools of persuasion as well as examples relating to George Lakoff’s family models in American politics. As for social inclusion and exclusion, Clinton’s use of pronouns revealed her attitude towards her supporters and opponents alike. The secondary analysis is a corpus-based analysis with focus on comparing selected aspects from the primary analysis. Finally a discussion of the analytical findings concludes the thesis. According to our results, it might seem that Clinton’s main purpose of her campaign discourses is to construct a narrative of herself as President of the United States of America, and additionally, she pushes the boundaries of the historical perception of the American presidency in regards to gender.

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