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1 - Part I Introduction: “Ask the Gays”: How to Use Language to Fragment and Redefine the Public Sphere

from Part I - Dividing the American Public

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Norma Mendoza-Denton
Edited by
Janet McIntosh  and
Norma Mendoza-Denton
Janet McIntosh
Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Norma Mendoza-Denton
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

This section introduction sets the stage for chapters 2, 3, and 4 by surveying some aspects of Trump’s speech acts that have precipitated a breakdown of the body politic. For example, Trump’s use of the determiner the before human kinds (such as “the gays”) pigeonholes and homogenizes the groups in question, rendering them an undifferentiated “other.” The chapter also discusses how Trump threatens Habermas’ notion of “the public sphere,” widely influential in contemporary understandings of the development of Western-style democracy. Trump’s divisive linguistic practices threaten the Enlightenment principles behind a Habermasian public sphere in which rational individuals freely participate with others in discussions of common problems, through a common language. The chapter further discusses how Trump hails and enlists his supporters through interactional routines, including entraining them during his campaign rallies with powerful three-syllable chants (such as “Get them out!”, “Lock her up!”, and “Build that wall!”). Trump also divides the nation by sanctioning insensitivity against his detractors, enacting the role of a stern, even merciless father figure.

Keywords

speech actssocial divisionpolitical divisionotheringpublicsHabermasinteractional routinesinsensitivity
Type
Chapter
Information
Language in the Trump Era
Scandals and Emergencies
 , pp. 47 - 51
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

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