Generational chronotopes and accounting for unethical medicine: Bill Clinton’s apologies for radiation research and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rhetoricians have theorized about temporality since the Sophists. In this essay, I argue that issues of rhetorical temporality can be understood by turning to the chronotope. I examine Bill Clinton’s rhetoric, which is notable for many reasons, including his two apologies for unethical government-sponsored research. Using his apologies for the government’s radiation research and for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, I map the generational chronotope, which arranges actions, people, and symbols along distinct generational lines to attribute praise and blame. Clinton apologizes for the unethical research but differentiated himself and his audience from previous generations of Americans and their leaders who were responsible for these ethical and scientific failings. While a powerful rhetorical strategy, Clinton’s use of the generational chronotope reinforces whiteness and deflects attention from the endemic nature of racism in America.