Elisabeth Camp (Rutgers): Just Kidding: Sarcasm, Jokes and Willful Deniability in Speech
In political discourse and personal conversations, speakers often turn to jokes and other forms of indirect speech as a way to preserve ’plausible deniability’ about what they meant. Interlocutors typically let them get away with such evasions, even when the speaker’s intended meaning is palpably obvious to all parties. I distinguish several species of willfully manipulative speech; diagnose some common factors that help explain their rhetorical effectiveness; and suggest some ways in which resistant audiences can fight back.
For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, meetings take place on Zoom during term time on Fridays from 5 pm to 7 pm.
