This paper explores explicit and implicit forms of intertextuality in the rhetoric of Nelson Mandela. Intertextuality is viewed as a mechanism of thought and part of the process of dianoia in... Show moreThis paper explores explicit and implicit forms of intertextuality in the rhetoric of Nelson Mandela. Intertextuality is viewed as a mechanism of thought and part of the process of dianoia in Classical rhetoric as conceptualised by Aristotle and is also considered crucial in the ethos of a rhetor. The research is founded on the idea that all rhetors have a particular rhetorical imprint, that is a deep-seated impression derived from a cognitive core structure ordering experience and communication and present in all the rhetoric of that individual. Intertextual cues were sought in Mandela's corpus of speeches, biographies, autobiography, anthologies of personal documents, the historical context and discourse communities he engaged with. When read against the historical context of the time, these texts provide insight into the dynamics of message production, personal relationships, personal beliefs and the contexts surrounding the production of certain texts and the discourse communities he engaged with. Biographical cues were sought in his upbringing in Xhosa culture, his mission school education, his political awakening in Johannesburg, his life in the struggle, his long prison term, the years after release and presidency. Thus far, explicit mappings include Afrikaans literary voices, Shakespeare and the 'classics', colleagues and friends from the struggle period, instances of self-referential intertextuality as well as intercontextuality of signs and symbols. The implicit mapping includes Churchill, the Gandhi-Nehru web of intertextuality, a Marxist-Socialist web including voices such as Castro and biblical allusion. To date, the most significant intertextuality found in Mandela's rhetoric is the Gandhi-Nehru web with Nehru playing a particularly influential role in Mandela's conception of struggle and his own life in that struggle. Show less
Salazar, P.J.; Osha, S.; Binsbergen, W.M.J. van 2004
Democracy is about competing "truths". This is why "rhetoric"- the study of public deliberation and the training in public debate and argumentation - is part of democracy in development. This... Show moreDemocracy is about competing "truths". This is why "rhetoric"- the study of public deliberation and the training in public debate and argumentation - is part of democracy in development. This volume acclimatizes "rhetoric" to the philosophical scene in South Africa, and more in general in Africa as a whole, and reflects on the emergence of public deliberation in the South African democracy through a reading of the 1995-1998 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in terms of Aristotelian rhetoric. Four papers (part 1) tackle, from four different angles, the re-telling of private truths about a public regimen of affairs in front of the TRC. In Part 2, public deliberation and the fashioning of truth are approached from a variety of perspectives, examples and situations of "rhetorical democracy" from elsewhere in Africa (Nigeria) and beyond. Part 3 offers examples of how rhetoric may be brought to bear upon politics in order to understand how dialogue between different levels of agency creates democratic negotiation and, in the process, shapes policy, as for example in the case of the African Renaissance, the land redistribution programme in postapartheid South Africa and the 1991 National Conference of Congo-Brazzaville. The volume closes on a philosophical analysis of the "ethical" dimension inherent to public deliberation as well as to the contest of beliefs, and on an examination of the volume's contents in the light of long-standing concerns of African philosophy and of the journal 'Quest'. Contributors: Charles Calder, Barbara Cassin, Mary Jane Collier, Erik Doxtader, Eugene Garver, Yehoshua Gitay, Lisa Hajjar, Darrin Hicks, Johnson Segun Ige, Abel Kouvouama, Andrea Lollini, Reingard Nethersole, Sanya Osha, Philippe-Joseph Salazar, Lydia Samarbakhsh-Liberge, Wim van Binsbergen, Charles Villa-Vicencio. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
