When invoked voices blame real politicians

Confrontational blaming in a speech from Austria’s “commemorative year” 2018

Bibliographic Data

ID21200966
AuthorsHelmut Gruber (0000-0001-9696-0812, University of Vienna, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume13
Issue5
Pages793-814
Publication date2022-12-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePragmatics and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1878-9714 • E-ISSN: 1878-9722
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/ps.21021.gru
OpenAlexW4309839506
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

This case study analyses the socio-pragmatic effects of invoked multiple voices in a commemorative speech delivered by Austrian writer Michael Köhlmeier on the occasion of the 2018 Austrian commemoration day against violence and fascism. Köhlmeier uses different forms of discourse representation to blame politicians of the then Austrian government for their political statements and actions. The focus of this article is on the speaker’s combination of (imagined and real) sources and forms of discourse representation, resulting in strategically deployed perspective shifts to express opposition and blame. Furthermore, the sociopragmatic functions of these rhetorical and textual strategies in the context of situation, as well as in the wider context of the Austrian culture of collective remembrance are explored, in particular by showing that by blaming actual Austrian politicians for their political statements and actions, the traditional consensual commemorative discourse is breached. This latter effect is probably responsible for the huge public attention the speech attracted in 2018

Art · Blame · Linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Linguistic research and analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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