Strategies of Political Persuasion in Literary Genres

Today's world is characterized and dominated by manipulative politics and rhetorical power that impose a specific type of persuasive language which serves to shape our responses and change our attitudes. Within such an atmosphere language appears to be a crucial element in determining the way we think and the manner we behave. This book presents a computationally-based critical discourse analysis of political persuasion in two sites of power conflict represented in two different literary genres: the conversational and the narrative. The book clarifies the extent to which rhetorical dimension of power is more representative in the production of political persuasion than the physical one. This indicates that, within the context of politics, the power of words is more effective than the power of weapons. This book demonstrates that the exercise of power is more representative in persuasive discourse than in coercive one. The book, therefore, addresses not only a culture-specific theme of persuasion but also its universal perspective since it is difficult to find a country without politics, and it is more difficult to find any political system without a mechanism of persuasion.

Autorentext

Ayman Khafaga is a lecturer of Linguistics in the department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Suez Canal University, Egypt. He is currently an assistant professor of Linguistics at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His research interests include critical discourse analysis, pragmatics and sociolinguistics.