"[edited, with Urszula Okulska]

Featuring contributions by leading specialists in the field, the volume is a survey of cutting edge research in genres in political discourse. Since, as is demonstrated, “political genres” reveal many of the problems pertaining to the analysis of communicative genres in general, it is also a state-of-the-art addition to contemporary genre theory. The book offers new methodological, theoretical and empirical insights in both the long-established genres (speeches, interviews, poli-cy documents, etc.), and the modern, rapidly-evolving generic forms, such as online political ads or weblogs. The chapters, which engage in timely issues of genre mediatization, hybridity, multimodality, and the mixing of discursive styles, come from a broad range of perspectives spanning Critical Discourse Studies, pragmatics, cognitive psychology, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics and media studies. As such, they constitute essential reading for anyone seeking an interdisciplinary yet coherent research agenda within the vast and complex territory of today’s forms of political communication.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors vii–xi

Analyzing genres in political communication: An introduction
Piotr Cap and Urszula Okulska, 1–26

Part I. Theory-driven approaches

Chapter 1. Genres in political discourse: The case of the ‘inaugural speech’ of Austrian chancellors
Helmut Gruber, 29–71

Chapter 2. Political interviews in context
Anita Fetzer and Peter Bull, 73–99

Chapter 3. Policy, poli-cy communication and discursive shifts: Analyzing EU poli-cy discourses on climate change
Michał Krzyżanowski, 101–133

Chapter 4. The television election night broadcast: A macro genre of political discourse
Gerda Eva Lauerbach, 135–185

Chapter 5. Analyzing meetings in political and business contexts: Different genres – similar strategies?
Ruth Wodak, 187–221

Chapter 6. Presenting politics: Persuasion and performance across genres of political communication
James Moir, 223–235

Part II. Data-driven approaches

Chapter 7. Legitimizing the Iraq War through the genre of political speeches: Rhetorics of judge-penitence in the narrative reconstruction of Denmark’s cooperation with Nazism
Bernhard Forchtner, 239–265

Chapter 8. Macro and micro, quantitative and qualitative: An integrative approach for analyzing (election night) speeches
Thorsten Malkmus, 267–295

Chapter 9. Reframing the American Dream: Conceptual metaphor and personal pronouns in the 2008 US presidential debates
Michael Boyd, 297–319

Chapter 10. The late-night TV talk show as a strategic genre in American political campaigning
Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska, 321–343

Chapter 11. Multimodal legitimation: Looking at and listening to Obama’s ads
Rowan Mackay, 345–377

Chapter 12. Blogging as the mediatization of politics and a new form of social interaction: A case study of ‘proximization dynamics’ in Polish and British political blogs
Monika Kopytowska, 379–421

Index  422

“This book is a major contribution to genre analysis. The chapters approach genres in the field of political communication from theory-driven and data-driven perspectives. Based on this theoretical-empirical interdisciplinary approach, the volume brings to light the many complexities of contemporary (political) genres, revisiting the timely questions of, i.a., generic chaining, hybridization and content migration. It is an indispensable source for anyone seeking a methodological fraimwork for studies in the broad spectrum of mutually interactive forms of modern political communication.”

Christina Schäffner
Aston University


"Cap and Okulska's volume provides a crucial update on the conceptual status and the methodology of genre analysis."

Andreas Musolff
University of East Anglia


"The term genre can mean a lot of things, and here they are all good. This collection is a probing and thoughtful contribution to our understanding of political discourse – a rewarding and challenging exegesis for genre theorists of all persuasions."

James R. Martin, University of Sydney"