The Great Nation of Futurity The Discourse and Temporality of American National Identity

by Dunmire, Patricia

• ISBN13: 9780197658222
• ISBN10: 0197658229
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-04-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Great Nation of Futurity is situated within the discourse and ideology of American exceptionalism which has undergirded the nation's identity throughout its history. It draws out the temporal dimension of the exceptionalist ideology, namely the construal of America as the "great nation of futurity," and examines how this identity manifests linguistically and functions rhetorically in Cold War foreign policy discourse. Working within a critical discourse analytic framework, Patricia L. Dunmire examines the space-times construed within foreign policy discourse and demonstrates that these consistently position the United States in a privileged position vis-à-vis the future. This positioning, in turn, sanction a foreign policy approach focused on global future design.

Author Biography

Patricia L. Dunmire is a Professor of Rhetoric & Composition at Kent State University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in argumentation and discourse studies. Using a critical discourse studies approach, her work examines the discursive construal and rhetorical function of projections of the future within political discourse. Her work has been published in several journals, including Critical Discourse Studies, Discourse & Society, and The Journal of Language and Politics, as well as in edited volumes, and she is the author of Projecting the Future through Political Discourse.