Props as visual arguments in the political speeches of Binyamin Netanyahu

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper deals with objects that serve as props in political speeches, and examines their role as carriers of symbolic meaning that is constructed during a performance enacted in a political space. It focuses on the use of such objects as rhetorical arguments in three speeches by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: “the bomb speech,” “the drone-wreckage speech” and the “binder speech.” In each of these political speeches, the initial introduction of the object serves as a declarative act of coronation. This declaration imbues the object with symbolic meaning that relates to reality on several levels: it can serve as a visual metaphor, as a metonym, as a concrete illustration of an abstract concept, or an exhibit or evidence that a certain event took place. The relations between the prop and the spoken text and its rhetoric are discussed in order to trace the unique properties of the multimodal array of arguments that the “crowned” object constructs. The unique characteristics of the objects serve to echo and accentuate the identity and worldview of the speaker, but may also give rise to meanings that undermine the speaker’s intention.