Political Speech, from Possibility to Action: a Semiotic Approach

Abstract

This study considers the Algiers Declaration (1988), which provided a basis for the establishment of the State of Palestine, highlighting its enfranchising character as political oration. In addition to the lexical and structural ingredients typically discussed by classical studies, this type of political discourse is subject to the problematic of international relations and the realm of power. It creates a space for the interaction of selves (Palestinian and, or with, others) and intentions (strategies advocating liberation).The Algiers Declaration is unique for its distinctive oratory, produced in defense of the solid and eternal connection of human beings to land, as well as the legitimacy of building a homeland for the present generation and struggling generations to come. A specific strategy is followed, in the articulation of the declaration, to establish the thesis and persuade the recipient to adopt the perspective embodied in Palestinian and international public opinion. The declaration deploys history, creative imagination, utopian vision, ideology, symbolic edifices and other mechanisms to sustain a continuity of struggle, with rhetorical gears meshing and urging action towards liberation and emancipation. The author invests the devices of rhetorical semiotics to analyze the key components of the speech’s structure and organization, as well as the techniques used to convey the vision and convince the recipient of intentions that transcend the structural bounds of the oration.