Propagandizing The US Myth Of Unity: ‘We’ In Obama’s Inaugural Address, 2009

This article adopts an ‘objectified’ view of the notion of political propaganda, eschewing assumptions of intentional ‘manipulation’ of its addressees and espousing a contextual perspective, one based on an awareness of the decisive role played by the dominant belief and value system of the discourse community in the process of propagandizing. The paper focuses on the use of the personal pronoun “we” in Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address, 2009. The function(s) of the deictic are considered, firstly, in the light of Benveniste’s seminal theories (1971 [1966]) and then probed with special reference to what is called the US ‘myth’ of unity, which is cursorily examined in a diachronic perspective. Thus the paper highlights the ‘bonding’ purposes that “we” is made to serve, moving back and forth between the text and its context.