Panel presentation

Streeck, Jürgen (coordinator) (University of Texas, Austin)

The Candor of the Candidates : Embodiment in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Campaign

This project panel investigates gesture and bodily action in televised political communication during the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. We cast our research in terms of a “Neo-Quintilianist” heuristic, seeking to integrate the rigorous description of embodiment and talk with critical assessments of the quality and credibility of enactment. Our presentation addresses the following themes, among others :
  the shared “Quintilian” gesture code of the Democratic ;
  Howard Dean’s “didactic” gesticulation ;
  G.W. Bush’ facial actions and his televised behavior in the listener’s role ; and
  aspects of the delivery and sequencing of Bush’s and Kerry’s embodied actions during their debates. The panel concludes with a discussion of the contemporary relevance of Quintilian’s work on embodied political communication and of the possibilities for defi ning critical standards by which a candidate’s embodiment might be judged.

Panel authors

  Streeck, Jürgen
  Feyh, Kathleen
  Sae, Oshima

University of Texas, Austin