Foundational Speeches and National Identities in Argentina and South Africa (2014-2017)

Co-lead investigators: Professor A M Vitale ( UBA, Argentina) and Distinguished Professor Ph-J Salazar (UCT, South Africa)

Summary:

This bilateral project is a comparative enquiry in the main foundational speeches that structure national identity in Argentina and South Africa over the period 1900 to 1994. In keeping with rhetorical criticism our aim is two-fold: to establish, for the first time, a comprehensive body of key speeches that should serve scholars and students alike in their study of the discursive tenets of two political societies across the South Atlantic; and to contribute significantly to an international body of studies on the "rhetoricity" of national identity formation and what has been termed "constitutive rhetoric" .