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Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres
Edited by Assimakis Tseronis and Charles Forceville
[Argumentation in Context 14] 2017
► pp. 263–290

Chapter 10
The “seeds” of charisma

Multimodal rhetoric of Mussolini’s discourse

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.

Article outline
  • 1.Charisma: The non-argumentative side of persuasion
  • 2.Studies in multimodal rhetoric and charismatic communication
  • 3.A goal and belief view of multimodal communication
  • 4.A model of charisma
    • 4.1The internal features of charisma
    • 4.2The external displays of charisma
  • 5.The “seeds” of charisma: Finding charismatic features in words and bodily behaviour
    • 5.1Charisma in Mussolini’s words
      • 5.1.1Charismatic words
        • Nice-wordism
        • Strong-wordism
        • New-wordism: Mussolini’s creative language
      • 5.1.2Charismatic communicative acts
        • Incitations
        • Orders, requests for commitment
        • Rhetorical questions
        • Threats
        • Discrediting acts
        • Expression of affect
        • Expression of empathy
        • Praise
    • 5.2Charisma in Mussolini’s bodily behaviour
      • 5.2.1An annotation scheme of charismatic body behaviours
      • 5.2.2The “seeds” of Mussolini’s charisma
      • 5.2.3Types of charisma in Mussolini’s multimodal communication
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 20 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aic.14.11pog
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