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DemCP colloquium - JELTE OLTHOF: " 'We'll Be Watching You': Past, Presence, and Future in the crisis rhetoric of Greta Thunberg"

When:We 21-04-2021 16:00 - 17:15
Where:Online

Research colloquium of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics

Jelte Olthof, University of Groningen
"We'll Be Watching You": Past, Presence, and Future in the crisis rhetoric of Greta Thunberg

Abstract

Scholars have long realized that crises are, in part, the product of audience perception and therefore rhetorical choices. In this my presentation I will look the famous speech that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg delivered at the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit and argue that Chaïm Perelman's notion of presence helps explain how she not only transcend her own person in the speech, but time itself, and project climate catastrophe as a future present that should be avoided at all cost.

About the speaker

Jelte Olthof is assistant-professor in the Department of American Studies in Groningen. His research and teaching focuses on American political government and rhetoric. This presentation is based on the recently published article "Projecting a Future Present: Greta Thunberg's use of Presence at the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019."