GEORGE BUSH'S SECOND INAUGURAL PANEL

George W. Bush's Second Inaugural Panel Theme:

This special panel will present four different interpretations of George W. Bush's Second Inaugural, perhaps one of the most important epideictic addresses of our time.  The panel is intended to highlight methodological questions central to the study of epideictic rhetoric in the modern era: Are classical models sufficient to analyze modern epideictic, or is it productive to supplement them with more contemporary frameworks? And what aspects of present-day epideictic most warrant our critical attention: their aesthetic qualities, the political ideals they express, their argumentative substance, or some combination of these and other topics? The various readings of a common text featured on this panel will provide provocative and engaging answers to these questions.