Chapter 10. The “seeds” of charisma
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Isabella Poggi
Abstract
Given its role in leaders’ persuasive skills, “charisma” is a relevant field for multimodal rhetoric. This chapter investigates Mussolini’s charisma in his speeches and multimodal communication. According to a socio-cognitive model, charisma is a set of a person’s internal features, manifested by external displays – words, voice, gestures, facial expression – that have an important role in persuasion since, triggering positive emotions, they induce others to pursue goals in a convinced, engaged, enthusiastic way. Various internal features that are the bulk of a speaker’s persuasiveness, such as imperiousness, categoricity, empathy, or creativity, are first identified in Mussolini’s words and speech acts. Then an annotation scheme of his multimodal communication is employed to identify how these features are displayed in Mussolini’s prosody, gestures, facial expressions, and posture. The analysis shows that their frequency and combination only rarely make up a “Benevolent” type of charisma, and more often shape an “Authoritarian-Threatening” and a “Proactive-Attractive” charisma.
Abstract
Given its role in leaders’ persuasive skills, “charisma” is a relevant field for multimodal rhetoric. This chapter investigates Mussolini’s charisma in his speeches and multimodal communication. According to a socio-cognitive model, charisma is a set of a person’s internal features, manifested by external displays – words, voice, gestures, facial expression – that have an important role in persuasion since, triggering positive emotions, they induce others to pursue goals in a convinced, engaged, enthusiastic way. Various internal features that are the bulk of a speaker’s persuasiveness, such as imperiousness, categoricity, empathy, or creativity, are first identified in Mussolini’s words and speech acts. Then an annotation scheme of his multimodal communication is employed to identify how these features are displayed in Mussolini’s prosody, gestures, facial expressions, and posture. The analysis shows that their frequency and combination only rarely make up a “Benevolent” type of charisma, and more often shape an “Authoritarian-Threatening” and a “Proactive-Attractive” charisma.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction. Argumentation and rhetoric in visual and multimodal communication 1
- Chapter 1. Rhetoric, argumentation, and persuasion in a multimodal perspective 25
- Chapter 2. The rhetorical and argumentative potentials of press photography 51
- Chapter 3. Editorial cartoons and ART 81
- Chapter 4. Arguing with illustrations 111
- Chapter 5. Perspective by incongruity 137
- Chapter 6. The argumentative relevance of visual and multimodal antithesis in Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries 165
- Chapter 7. Seeing the untold 189
- Chapter 8. Employing film form and style in the argumentative analysis of political advertising 217
- Chapter 9. Embodied argumentation in public debates 239
- Chapter 10. The “seeds” of charisma 263
- Name index 291
- Subject index 295
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction. Argumentation and rhetoric in visual and multimodal communication 1
- Chapter 1. Rhetoric, argumentation, and persuasion in a multimodal perspective 25
- Chapter 2. The rhetorical and argumentative potentials of press photography 51
- Chapter 3. Editorial cartoons and ART 81
- Chapter 4. Arguing with illustrations 111
- Chapter 5. Perspective by incongruity 137
- Chapter 6. The argumentative relevance of visual and multimodal antithesis in Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries 165
- Chapter 7. Seeing the untold 189
- Chapter 8. Employing film form and style in the argumentative analysis of political advertising 217
- Chapter 9. Embodied argumentation in public debates 239
- Chapter 10. The “seeds” of charisma 263
- Name index 291
- Subject index 295
