| The intention of this thesis is to use a semiotic and linguistic analysis of George Bush's 2005 second Inaugural Address, and apply to it concepts drawn from the body of literature on American exceptionalism in order to understand the process by which his political rhetoric is produced and in what ways this rhetoric resonates with the American public. I begin by explaining psychoanalytic semiotics useful for literary criticism and linguistic philosophy to examine the representational images of vocalized thoughts, and how they function to subvert the representative process. Finally, themes in Bush's speech are identified as originating from the Puritan conceptualization of their American experience; these themes carry on through the founding fathers, literature, philosophy, popular art and become central to the rhetoric of Manifest Destiny. These three strands of analysis unbraid the coded imagery in Bush's address and demonstrate an American mythology that serves to justify America's imperialism. |
