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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 20:6 (2021) ► pp.913–931

Parrhesia, orthodoxy, and irony

A Foucauldian discourse analysis of the verbal politics of truth in the US Republican Party’s 2015–2016 presidential debates

ORCID logo | Jeonbuk National University
This research applies Foucault’s framework of parrhesia or “truth-telling” to analyze the twelve Republican Party’s Presidential debates in 2015–2016, culminating in the nomination of Donald Trump as the party’s Presidential candidate. Using discourse and conversation analytical methods, it explores how the three main debate competitors constructed three different narratives of truth: Donald Trump’s “parrhesiastic truth;” Marco Rubio’s “orthodox truth;” and Ted Cruz’s “ironic truth” produced by combining features of the former two. Key findings of this research are that different narratives of truth compete during political elections, and that their public resonance, or lack thereof, is historically contingent, based on shifting public attitudes towards institutional power. Politicians such as Ted Cruz who attempt to emulate parrhesia risk fracturing their personal and political voices, resulting in incoherence and silence on the public stage.
Keywords: parrhesia, political language, political truth, presidential debates
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background: Parrhesia, or speaking truth to politics
  • 3.Data and method: Twelve Republican presidential debates
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Trump’s parrhesiastic truth
      • 4.1.1Trump’s use of pronomial poetics
      • 4.1.2Voicing a parrhesiastic moral geography
    • 4.2The Principled, orthodox truthfulness of Marco Rubio
    • 4.3Cruz the ironist “parrhesiac”
      • 4.3.1The mixed theater of Cruz: Principles, pronouns, and agonisms
      • 4.3.2The truth of ironic dysfluency
  • 5.Discussion: An incommensurability of truths?
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Online Video References
  • References
Published online: 18 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.19058.chu
References (36)
Online Video References
2016 Presidential Debates (2016, March 5). Tenth Republican Primary Debate – February 25 2016 on CNN [YouTube video]. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from [URL]
(2016, March 28). Twelfth Republican Primary Debate – March 10 2016 on CNN [YouTube video]. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from [URL]
British Nationalist (2016, March 4). Fox News Republican Presidential Debate 03/03/2016 Detroit [YouTube video]. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from [URL]
Cbinetwork (2016, February 7). FULL ABC GOP Debate 2016 in NH [YouTube video]. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from [URL]
CBSN (2016, February 15). Full CBS News South Carolina Republican Debate [YouTube video]. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from [URL]
Kelly, Jeff. (2016, January 15). FULL 6th GOP Republican Debate from 1/14 [YouTube video]. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from [URL]
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