The rhetoric of goodness: Selected problems of symbolic communication

This diploma thesis deals with the rhetoric of Ku Klux Klan social movement. One of the goals of the work is to analyze through content analysis the codes that construct the categories of good and evil in the Ku Klux Klan movement. The second goal is to use the technique of critical discourse analysis to reveal the hidden power relations and ideologies that are found in the discourse of the movement. The theoretical part deals with the concept of social movement and the role of symbolic communication in it. It also deals with the concept of code and discourse. The chapter about discourse deals primarily with racism and the denial of racism in discourse. The thesis also concentrates on the theme of rhetoric, its development, rhetorical means and a view of rhetoric by Kenneth Burke. Further, the text deals with the context of Ku Klux Klan's birth and development. The last chapter of the theoretical part is describing the methodology that is afterwards applied to the examined documents