Presidential Rhetoric for Second Modernity: Three Cases from the Discourse of Barack Obama

Abstract

In this paper, I present studies of three of Barack Obama's speeches. In section two, I analyze Obama's "New Beginning" speech in which he attempts to improve relations between the United States and the Muslim world and find that Obama's speech fulfills the requirements ofNeo-Aristotelian analysis and benefits from Obama's ability to view the world from different perspectives. I then study in section three Obama's "Prague Speech," in which the President advocates for the reduction of nuclear arms, and reveal that Obama crafts a new metaphor that centers on a journey in which nations traverse a bridge from the past to the present. Third, in section four I examine Obama's speeches on the liberation movement in Libya from the perspective of narrative criticism. I discover that Obama crafts a new narrative of internationalism that creates a Libyan identity centered on agency. I conclude and describe how Obama' s speeches serve as evidence of second modernity and discuss what I have learned during my time at NDSU.