This course will analyse the main forms and functions of political language: ideological function, communication aiming at persuasion, and communication aiming at finding common norms of justice. In the last part of the course we will analyse some exemplary discourses of political leaders.
The course aims at studying the language of political theory and practice, the main models of analysis of political discourse, and the nature and functioning of political communication. A special attention will be given to the metamorphosis of contemporary political vocabulary - caused by radical cultural and economic changes at the global level - and to the impact that new media patterns of communication have on the formation of political discourse and communicative strategies. The teaching materials may be provided through the online platform Aulaweb.
Besides outlining the main models to understand political language, the course will also provide the conceptual tools to assess the validity of political language, also appealing to the idea of public reason. In the last part of the course these conceptual instruments will be applied to some important cases of political discourses to assess their congruence and validity with respect to the criteria studied during the course.
Lectures in the first two parts of the course, seminars in the third part.
The course will be divided in three parts. The first part will deal with the main theories of political language and with the outline of its three main functions (expression of one's identity, persuasion, agreement on common rules of justice). The second part will address the two main theories (by Habermas and Rawls) that propose a robust understanding of the third function of political language. The third part of the course will be mainly seminar-based and will concern some important discourses of political actors.
Cedroni – Dell’Era Il linguaggio politico, Roma, Carocci (parts)
Fedel, Saggi su linguaggio e oratoria politica (parts)
Petrucciani, Introduzione a Habermas, Roma, Laterza, (parts)
Maffettone, Introduzione a Rawls, Roma, Laterza, (parts)
Further details will be given during the course.
FEDERICO ZUOLO (President)
VALERIA OTTONELLI
MIRELLA PASINI
CARLO PENCO
DANIELE ROLANDO
ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL LANGUAGE
