A Study on Michelle Obama’s Speech at Stanford Center at Peking University from the Perspective of Burke’s New Rhetoric

Abstract

Kenneth Burke is the founder of the new rhetoric. Dramatism is one of the important contents of Burke’s rhetoric theory. It is a way for Burke to analyze and study the relationship and motivation of human behavior through drama. Dramatism can be used as a practical tool in discourse analysis, especially in advertisements and speeches. Michelle Obama, the wife of 44^th U.S. President Barack Obama, is the first African-American first lady in U.S. history. She has been a powerful force behind Barack Obama’s political career. Michelle Obama’s regular speeches not only raised her public profile but also built support for her husband, which had a huge impact on politics, education, and culture. The research mainly adopts a descriptive method to analyze Michelle Obama’s speech at Peking University in 2014 from the perspective of Burke’s dramatism. This paper tries to find out the characteristics of Michelle Obama’s speech and reveals the deep meaning of her speech, that is, to promote cultural exchanges between China and the United States.