Date of Award
6-1992
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Dr. James Gilchrist
Second Advisor
Dr. James Jaksa
Third Advisor
Dr. Richard Joyce
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
The hypothesis of this work is that the political rhetoric of the Serbian leader, Milosevic, was among the major factors contributing to the political and social changes in Serbia and Yugoslavia, which ultimately led to the war.
Three of Milosevic's speeches were studied in detail: the speeches of April 24, 1987, October 17, 1988, and November 19, 1988. The method of rhetorical analysis was adopted from Andrews (1990) because this method stresses the importance of context and effects of the speech. The theories of political language (Graber, 1981) and of political rhetoric (Bitzer, 1981) together with Johannesen's (1989) theory of ethics in political persuasion were utilized in the analyses.
The analyses of the speeches in regard to their level of complexity suggest that a shift occurred in Milosevic's rhetoric, from rhetoric high in the level of complexity to simplistic and value-laden statements, and thus low in the level of complexity.
Recommended Citation
Bozic, Agneza, "The Rhetoric of Slobodan Milosevic and War on the Territory of Yugoslavia" (1992). Masters Theses. 897.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/897