The Declaration of Independence : A New Genre in Political Discourse or Mixed Genres in an Unlikely Medium?

Abstract

The dissertation shows how mismatched content/medium relationships can supersede the responses of traditional pairings when the medium dominates the discursive power of the discourse. The dissertation, in part, looks at a historical case study to help us understand some modern uses where mismatched pairings have been used to enhance audience attention. I begin with an overview of related theories that pertain to genre inception, development, and demise. Next, I describe an historic occasion where a mismatched content/medium pairing was, to some extent, responsible for reshaping geo-political relations: Modern concepts of democracy rest within the genre of a political communication that originated from the writing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Looking at the Declaration of Independence alongside the British government's response to it in John Lind's lengthy pamphlet An Answer to the Declaration of the American Congress, I discuss normative uses of genres during the eighteenth century to show how the success of the Dunlap Broadside version of the Declaration of Independence, the official version ordered by the Second Continental Congress, is a product of a larger message that is implied by the broadside in conjunction with its content of revolutionary thinking. The dissertation concludes with modern-day examples where mismatched content/medium pairings are being used in strategies to increase public awareness of messages that were originally introduced through traditional pairings.