Case Studies in Parrhesia

Utilizing an analytic framework that includes the parrhesiastic rhetorical situation, interrogating truth claims, and recognizing the networked effects of parrhesia, this chapter offers examples of parrhesiastic action as sites to apply the rhetorical networked theory described in this book. While there are numerous other parrhesiastes that could be analyzed, for this study the following figures are examined: Matilda Gage from the nineteenth-century women’s rights movement; Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus protest of 1955; Tank Man in Tiananmen Square in 1989; Edward Snowden’s disclosure of mass surveillance in 2013; Bree Newsome removing the confederate battle flag in 2015; and Greta Thunberg’s speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in 2019. Each case study offers an example of a rhetorically networked analysis of a parrhesiastic event, showing how the specific criteria for parrhesiastic action play out in the moment, as well as tracing a selection of networked effects.