Critical Discourse Analysis: The Rhetoric of Female Political Activism in the 21st Century. Yousafzai, Thunberg and Ocasio-Cortez

Abstract

[Abstract] The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze three speeches by young female voices. In order to do so, theory on Critical Discourse Analysis will be presented, followed by a detailed study on Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Lecture in 2014, Greta Thunberg’s speech at the United Nations during the Climate Action Summit in 2019, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s speech at the C40 World Mayors Summit in 2019. The study focusses on linguistic and non-linguistic features in order to find out what kind of rhetorical devices have been used to create strong appeals and enhance persuasion, which results in the important political impact of the three orators. The findings will reveal the importance of context, figures of speech, agency, and modality in rhetoric and, more precisely, in persuasive discourse, as they are used to appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos, the three Aristotelian proofs that have been in the core of rhetoric since classical times.