Graduate Program
Communication Studies
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Semester of Degree Completion
2011
Thesis Director
Marita Gronnvall
Thesis Committee Member
Unknown
Thesis Committee Member
Unknown
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the growing literature of constitutive rhetoric, originally coined by Maurice Charland. Through a case study of the US/Mexico border fence, I illustrate that the communicative tactics of articulation, appropriation and image events have the potential to act as interpellative strategies of identity construction. Through my analysis, I show how these strategies function in constitutive rhetoric in both verbal discourses and in visual rhetoric through image events. I also note that the lack of discourses in an argument may have implications that are equally significant to those that are present.
Recommended Citation
Klipp, Mary Katherine, "Constitutive walls: The U.S.-Mexico border fence and constructing identity" (2011). Masters Theses. 115.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/115
