Worthy Words: The Rhetoric of Speeches in Support of Exhibitions about National Socialism
Paver, C
Date: 1 October 2022
Article
Journal
Modern Language Review
Publisher
Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
Publisher DOI
Abstract
History exhibitions about National Socialism in Germany are generally endorsed by invited
dignitaries who deliver speeches at the opening ceremony. Aside from a negative comment that
such speeches are ‘inhaltlich völlig deckungsgleich’, they have received no scholarly attention.
As part of Germany’s ‘memory mainstream’, the increasingly ...
History exhibitions about National Socialism in Germany are generally endorsed by invited
dignitaries who deliver speeches at the opening ceremony. Aside from a negative comment that
such speeches are ‘inhaltlich völlig deckungsgleich’, they have received no scholarly attention.
As part of Germany’s ‘memory mainstream’, the increasingly routine commemoration of National
Socialist crimes and discrimination, this speech-making—and its undoubted tendency to
repetition—requires better understanding. Drawing on concepts from the study of rhetoric and
commemorative discourses, the article investigates the speeches’ conventionalized performance
and verbal expression, and considers what happens when the replication of standardized ideas fails.
German
Collections of Former Colleges
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