Dimensions of Temporality in President Obama’s Tucson Memorial Address

Abstract

Abstract President Obama’s speech following the January 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona employed a series of temporal shifts to help the nation integrate the tragedy into its collective consciousness. This essay identifies four dimensions of temporality that were developed in the Tucson Memorial Address and analyzes their interrelationships. It argues that rhetoric can better facilitate judgment by providing auditors with multiple interrelated but individually untotalizable temporal perspectives. By that standard, the Tucson Address employs a temporal network that serves as a significant impediment to rhetorical judgment.