Discourse and Power in Political Commentaries. Hunter.S.Thompson

1. A Work in Progress Discourse and Power in Political Commentaries THE WRITERS EMPIRE Hunter. S. Thompson By AnnahComyn

2. Overview For the purpose of assignment three and five my overall theme towards this topic will be political writers and their linguistic strategies. Each writer that I have chosen for this assignment has written a political commentary, some are known for their resistance and dare I say disestablishment views, while the others are in favour of the establishment. However through the course of the final project I will be discussing and drawing connections from establishment language to that of the establishment protester. Some other writers that will be included in the final project are Machiavelli and Bob Dylan (through poetry). For this presentation I will be focusing on Hunter. S. Thompson and his strategies of discourse and power.

3. Introduction Political language, discourse and power, whether it is written or spoken, involves linguistic strategies to either censor, resist or assert itself to a specific set of community concepts.

4. HUNTER. S. THOMPSON “That is the key to my oft-uttered wisdom in re: Politics is the art of controlling your environment. Indeed. Never forget it, or you will become a Victim of your environment. Rich nerds and lawyers will stomp all over you worse than any A-rab, and you will be like the eight ball on some country-club billiards table near Atlanta – whack, over and out. No more humour.” -HST “Kingdom of fear”, 2003

5. DISCOURSE Hunter. S. Thompson’s use of Language At a Glance Conversational narrative “I” and “you”. “is the key to my...or you will” Use of similes to invoke an image in the readers mind “you will be like the eight ball” Use of italics and onomatopoeia for emphasis “whack” , “stomp”

6. DISCOURSE AND POWER Coercion “Ways, including commands and agenda setting, of making assumptions about realities that hearers are forced to accept, at least temporarily” Chilton and Shaffner, 1997 The Use of Imperatives in Coercion Hunter. S. Thompson uses imperatives to suggest that should anyone not see his own view of the situation, they will receive negative consequences. “Never forget it, or you will become a Victim of your environment” The use of “or” and “become” acts as the option tool to his previous imperative “Never forget it” and in turn the option is a negative consequence. This is achieved by suggesting the “Victim” is weak if they did not adhere to his command.

7. DISCOURSE AND POWER Coercion and Hate Language “Rich nerds and lawyers will stomp all over you worse than any A-rab” Reasons for using derogatory labels To convey contempt, anger and hostility To ridicule and provoke violence To encourage readers to experience heightened prejudice Harmon, M.R., & Wilson, M.J. 2006 Rich: Upper class, meaning the privileged in money and education Nerds: Stereotypical slang term, socially and physically inept. Stomp: Connotations of violence

8. POWER Coercion and Hate Language Continued... Effects of derogatory labels Denigrates the targets as sub-human Insults targets Promotes acceptance of negative views Increases prejudice and violence Activates negative stereotypes Harmon, M.R., & Wilson, M.J. 2006 Since Hunter. S. Thompson is using coercion in this particular passage, for his readers to accept his point of view he uses hate language and slang terms in order to distant his chosen targets to create an accepted sympathy. That is to say that his strategy in coercion, by using derogatory labels, encourages negative perceptions of his targets.

9. Conclusion Hunter. S. Thompson gains his power through his techniques in his discourse. By establishing coercion and hate language techniques he asserts his power by limiting the views of his reader. This is achieved by assuming his readers are not A-rabs, nerds, rich and lawyers and since it is a written piece of communication he is in control of the perception. In this case a negative perception of the subjects he has chosen to target. “Politics is the art of controlling your environment” Hunter. S. Thompson, “Kingdom of Fear”, 2003.

10. Discourse and Power in Political Commentaries By AnnahComyn