Protest rhetoric in three cultures : Italy, Spain and the United States, 2011-2012

This thesis examines three texts that emerged from the 2011-2012 protest movements in Italy, Spain, and the United States. These 2011-2012 global movements have garnered much popular attention, as well as consideration from a number of departments within academia, but comparatively less so from scholars of rhetoric. Yet, these movements are both constituted by rhetoric and use rhetoric to negotiate with entrenched institutions. Given the centrality of rhetoric to protest endeavors, the relative paucity of rhetorical scholarship directed toward these movements is surprising, and this thesis attempts to address this gap. Two of the texts analyzed herein were written specifically to convoke adherents and sympathizers, and therefore represent forms of constitutive rhetoric. The third text evinces a constitutive function, but its primary purpose was to articulate specific political, economic and social demands. Although these three texts were crafted to address particular national audiences, the 2011-2012 movement was profoundly global, and these texts reflect this transnational context