Intro To Rhetoric
Transcript of Intro To Rhetoric
The Rhetoric of “The Body:” Jesse Ventura and Bakhtin’s Carnival. By
Janack, JamesBy:
Kevin Gossen, Tyson Peters, Brooke Bulman, Dylan Mayer
Who is Jesse “The Body” Ventura?
• Community College drop-out
• Former Navy SEAL
• Former motorcycle club member
• Formal professional wrestler
• Actor
• Talk-radio host
Ventura cont.
• Only official political experience came as the one-term mayor of Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis
• Ran for governorship in Minnesota in 1998 and was elected.
• Served 1999-2003
• Believed to have won because his “average American” attitude and his idea of going against “politics as usual”
What’s the act?
• We will be looking at the ways Jesse “The Body” Ventura used rhetoric to get elected in the 1998
• Using Bakhtin’s Theory of Carnival
Who is Mikhail Bakhtin
• Russian Philosopher
• Worked on Theory
What is Carnival?
Carnival
• Carnival focuses on the “messy and grotesque” functions of the body and celebrates them
Main Points of Rhetoric
• Ritual Spectacles
• Comic Verbal Contributions
• Billingsgate
Ritual Spectacles
• Carnival spectacle involves exaggeration and excess
• Specifically exaggerates the body both visually and with its functions
Images Associated with Ventura
• Used his nickname “the Body” from his wrestling days
• Exaggerated with his campaign ad Jesse the Mind
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSACk65D3pk
• Also exaggerated body in interviews
Bodily Activities
• Carnival celebrates things that are usually hidden from society
• Jesse Ventura was never shy about his past
Relation to Sex
• Sex is another common theme in carnival
• Jesse was also open about this portion of his past
• Inverts the roles of spectator and participant
• Uses Parody
• Theme emerged that showed Ventura as a common citizen, unlike the typical politicians.
• “I’m not a professional politician…” (“Gubernatorial Debate from Duluth,” 1998).
• In his book, I Ain’t Got Time to Bleed, Ventura talked about the Government in third person. Even after he had already been sworn in as governor.
Comic Verbal Compositions
• More subtle forms of inversion
• Ventura’s Inaugural Celebration
• Another form of Comic Composition is Parody
– Parody is the laughing aspect of something
• Imitating something usually exaggerating
– Ventura “The Mind”
• Wink’s at the end of ad, expressing that hedoes not take himself, or politics, too seriously
Billingsgate
• Leads to new forms of speech
• Can manifest itself in several ways:
– 1. Abuses
– 2. Popular Blazons
– 3. Profanity
– 4. Improprieties
• Ventura mainly uses profanity and improprieties
• Inappropriate language differs him from opposition
• Most politicians don’t use profanity and inappropriate language
• Liberates speech from the norms, hierarchies, and established etiquette
• Continues the emphasis on the body that characterizes the carnival sense of the world
Summary
• By using these 3 ways of rhetoric, Jesse “The Body” Ventura proved you can forget “politics as usual” and gain votes to win an election.
• By using the “I’m an everyday guy just like you” What comes of that?
• The outsider politician.