Apologia is a rhetorical genre of self-defense. As such, apologetic discourse
involves a response to an attack upon an individual's character or worth as a human being.
Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman encountered such a attack during the 0.J.
Simpson murder trial. The purpose of this analysis is to determine whether the rhetorical
strategies indicative of apologia are used to perform masculine facework in Mark
Fuhrman's Murder In Brentwood. By means of critical analysis, apologia can be
established as a masculine face-saving strategy. The analysis takes place in two stages.
First, the connection between facework and apologia is established. The four strategies of
Hodgins, Liebeskind, and Schwartz (1996), Sandra Petronio's examples of defensive
strategies, and three strategies in William L. Benoit's (1995) typology of image restoration
strategies provide the first two units of analyses. Second, questions gleaned from the
research of Noreen Kruse (1977) determined the topics to which Fuhrman devotes the
most time in his discourse and the motivational drives that shape that discourse. By
integrating the findings of both analyses, the masculine face Fuhrman endeavors to save
emerges. / Graduation date: 1999
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33703 |
| Date | 29 June 1998 |
| Creators | Kearney, Melva J. |
| Contributors | Moore, Mark P. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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