Academic Scientific JournalsSpeaking character: Kamala Harris and the construction of a rhetorical character in the 2024 Presidential Campaign (Part 2)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26881/bp.2026.1.03Keywords:
ethos, Kamala Harris, presidential campaign, Herman’s ethotic typologyAbstract
Building on Part One, which mapped Kamala Harris’s use of Aristotle’s ethos dimensions – arete, phronesis, and eunoia – across sixty-three 2024 presidential campaign speeches, Part Two applies Thierry Herman’s ethotic typology (community, contrario, borrowed, and neutralized ethos) to analyze how these subtypes construct her rhetorical persona. Through representative speech excerpts, the study examines how said (direct) and shown (indirect) ethos function via discursive strategies such as the use of pronouns, ethopoeia, storytelling, and evaluative language. These strategies contribute to the inferential construction of ethos and influence audience perceptions of Harris’s character. The analysis reflects on the effectiveness of these rhetorical strategies in shaping Harris’s projected persona and their potential influence on voter perception.
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References
Primary sources
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