Populist Rhetorics

Christian Kock is Emeritus Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has published in Philosophy and Rhetoric, Argumentation, Political Communication, Rhetorica, Rhetorica Scandinavica, Paradigmi, Informal Logic, Controversia and many other journals and has authored and edited several books in Danish and English on political rhetoric, argumentation, and public debate, most recently his Deliberative Rhetoric: Arguing about Doing (2017).Lisa Villadsen is Professor and Head of the Section of Rhetoric at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has published in Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Javnost, Rhetorica Scandinavica, and other journals on official apologies, political rhetoric, dissent, and populism, most recently “Low Style the High Way: Rhetorical Mainstreaming of Populism” in the edited volume Vox Populi: Populism as a Rhetorical and Democratic Challenge (2020).

“The volume is intended to bring rhetoric closer to scholars of populism, and, on the other hand, to bring populism closer to scholars of rhetoric. … the relevance of the rhetorical dimension of populism is valuable and constitutes the most significant value of this monograph. … Therefore, it might be valuable for readers who come from non-rhetorical backgrounds to familiarize themselves with this term in order to understand that the book address rhetoric.” (Agnieszka Kampka, Res Rhetorica, Vol. 10 (1), 2023)

• Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Populist Melancholy.- Chapter 3: Voltagabbana Rhetorics. Salvini Unmasked: Turncoating as a Populist Strategy in Pandemic Times.- Chapter 4: Populist Rhetoric and Digital Communication: The Case of Brexit.- Chapter 5: Populism and the Rise of the AfD in Germany.- Chapter 6: The Rhetorical Strategy of Moralisation: A Lesson from Greece.- Chapter 7: Victorious Victimization. Viktor Orbán the Orator: Deep Securitization in Hungary’s Propaganda State.- Chapter 8: The Voice and Message of Hugo Chávez: A Rhetorical Analysis.- Chapter 9: Afterword: Afterword: A Definition Sought and Tested.- Index.