Rhetorical Criticism: Neo-Aristotelian Criticism of a Speech

Introduction

Rhetoric in the medieval period was a formal skill of considerable importance. It was taken to mean the effective presentation of ideas with a set of rules or style, and was founded in the classical tradition of Aristotle and Cicero. It was taught in monastic schools as part of the trivium, Rhetoric, Logic and Grammar, which used as its basic text Geoffrey de Vinsauf's Poetria Nova (1200). This paper aims to analyze Lady Gaga's speech against the discriminatory “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy through rhetoric Neo-Aristotelian analysis. Examined with the Neo-Aristotelian method of rhetorical analysis, this piece of oratory provides insight into how celebrities leverage their talents beyond fame to create a compelling argument and persuade their audiences. Rhetoric not only formed patterns in which texts should be written, but it also governed how the works should be received and allocated them to particular categories, e.g. epic, debate or sermon (Mahwah, Erlbaum, 73). The system of rhetoric was paramount to the operation of literature in the medieval period. In the speech selected for this paper, Lady Gaga does so by industriously and efficiently dipping her words of speech into the canons of classical rhetoric. There are several contexts in this paper that maintain Neo-Aristotelian methodology in order to analyze the prescribed speech.

Analysis of Speech Artifacts

The speech of Lady Gaga is related to a controversial policy of excluding the homosexual soldiers that are a part of U.S. military. The legislation imposed at these soldiers is termed as “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” (DADT). Nonetheless, the objective of her speech is to address the discrepancies in the Act which was held on September 20, 2011; nonetheless, just one year before that date, the vision for this policy was vague. Enacted in 1993 by President Clinton, the policy was the result of a compromise after Clinton's campaign for revoking banishment on homosexuals in the military of the United States. Immediately after his election, Congress quickly enacted the discriminatory policy into federal law saying that anyone proven to engage in homosexual acts was to be discharged. The Clinton administration then issued Defense Directive 1304.26, which said service members could not be asked about their sexual orientation, according to a comprehensive and well-cited exploration of the policy's history on Wikipedia (“Don't ask don't tell”). After its passage, there were several movements to fully repeal the policy via both the judicial system and the legislative system, and in September, 2010, Judge Virginia Phillips declared the law unconstitutional (Wineburg, 106).

Nonetheless, there was an immediate stay on the judgment, keeping the policy in force; in addition, at the same time, legislation was slated to be introduced into Congress that would repeal the law. Nonetheless, initiating from this spot Lady Gaga takes the charge who is a well known young woman belonging to the United States that achieved tremendous fame in the year 2008. Nonetheless, by the year 2010 Lady Gaga had released two successful albums, and this celebrity was in the middle of a ...