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made social advancement possible, much more so than some obscure psychological
quality, such as creativity, originality, or any other charismatic gift endowing special
leadership qualities.
The same respect for factuality shown by Arendt's theory on the personal and
social values expressed by the self-aware pariah is the root of Foucault's (
2001
)
theory on
parrhesia
, seen as the most advantageous communicative choice when
speaking about controversial or difficult aspects of personal and social life. In
this work, developed in the last part of his life, Foucault tried to grasp the main
characteristics of the decision to speak frankly and fearlessly about difficult topics.
What distinguishes parrhesia from other social circumstances when it is essential
to speak the truth (e.g., when conveying scientific knowledge or technical details)
is the fact that in the case of parrhesia the one who is speaking accepts the risk of
her frank and open speech. This is how the concept was first described in ancient
Greek dramas (e.g., in Euripides's plays) or in ancient Greek philosophy (e.g., in
the teachings of the Cynic School). Here, good examples of parrhesia include the
words of Teiresias, an oracle who revealed to Oedipus his tragic destiny, or the
episode of Demosthenes replying to his king that the only desire of Demosthenes
that the king could really fulfill would be to step aside so that the philosopher could
enjoy the sunlight. Later on, this same idea of parrhesia entered the first Christians'
philosophy, though in slightly changed form because of the Gospels' teachings on
truth. On the one hand, Jesus' words “the truth shall set you free” stressed the
empowering effect of parrhesia, reducing the fear that always accompanies a lack
of knowledge and awareness. On the other hand, his decision never to lie about
his religious proposal - a decision that was subsequently repeated by many of his
disciples - was perhaps the best expression of a generous attitude toward society, full
of hope that the future would be more open to change and understanding than their
present society would allow. Taking together both the ancient Greek considerations
about parrhesia and the later importation of this concept into Christian culture,
Foucault came to propose the idea that parrhesia was perhaps the most empowering
communicative act in social discourse. On the one hand, he considered parrhesia
the best way to take care of oneself, refusing to hide or hinder one own's thoughts
or inner states. On the other hand, he stressed that parrhesia was the best way to
empower the disempowered as well, giving them the tools to better understand the
situations they find themselves in. In this last consideration, however, recipients
must agree to play the stressful “communicative game” that the parrhesiastic speaker
is inviting them to play (Foucault
2001
).
The following in-depth analysis of four autobiographical recalls, embedded in
some famous political speeches of Barack Obama, aims to explore both the verbal
contents and the body communication evident in these extracts by framing them
according to both of Arendt's (
1978
) theory on self-aware pariahs and Foucault's
(
2001
) theory on parrhesia
.
To achieve this aim, however, an original methodology
was needed that would combine a tool focused on facial expressions [facial action
coding system (FACS)] (Ekman and Friesen
1978
) with the multimodal analysis of
communication proposed by Poggi (
2007
) that takes into account simultaneously the
verbal content and body language used during the recollections of autobiographical
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