Ricerc@Sapienza

Populist powers are increasingly important in contemporary world and society, and studies on populism have penetrated contemporary currents of political science. However, despite the number and relevance of inquiries into populism, its relationship with gender issues is still a generally understudied subject. The aim of my article is both to highlight some distinctive features of this phenomenon and to examine the case-study of female populist leader represented by Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and 2008 nominee for vice-President of the United States of America.

In Italy, over the last decades, both the Left and the Right have repeatedly employed American Indians as political icons. The Left and the Right, that is, both adopted and adapted certain real or often outright invented features of American Indian culture and history to promote their own ideas, values, and political campaigns. The essay explores how well-established stereotypes such as those of the ecological Indian, the Indian as victim, and the Indian as fearless warrior, have often surfaced in Italian political discourse.

Il contributo e finalizzato a presentare varie linee interrelate d’indagine (media e field studies) di
un ampio programma di ricerca che ha come obiettivo-guida lo studio della polarizzazione delle
rappresentazioni sociali ed atteggiamenti in funzione dei diversi posizionamenti ideologici di
soggetti sociali (individui/gruppi/ organizzazioni/istituzioni, esperti/gente comune) e delle
appartenenze identitarie, che orientano i processi di inclusione/esclusione sociale nei confronti

The construction of ethos-based self-representation in public discourse is particularly evident when it comes to politicians and corporate leaders who, in their public prominent role, may need to convince their audience they behave and have behaved ethically. This seems to be even more evident in case of suspicion of wrongdoing, which is typically the reason why investigative congressional hearings are conducted. The hearings can give researchers the possibility to discover whom the Congress is listening to, who the players are and how they position themselves in a debate.

Congressional hearings are ofen the most requested government documents in US libraries. However, among the genres that have been traditionally of interest to political discourse analysts – e.g. political speeches, political interviews, policy documents – hearings have not been of much scrutiny on the part of discourse scholars, an attitude somehow contrasting with the lay public’s interest. Cinzia Giglionitakes the opportunity to gain a unique view into the actors, the interested parties, the issues, from a linguistic and rhetorical perspective.

The article is intended to illustrate recourse to apologetic discourse in a specialized genre, i.e. congressional hearings. More specifically, the case studies under examination are Hillary Clinton’s two congressional hearings held in 2013, when she was called to testify about the September 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee.