Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Kairos of "Glory"

Kairos is seen as a rhetorical element in John Legend’s song “Glory”, which appeared in the recent movie Selma. The rhetorical situation in which the song was created is the 50th anniversary of the 1965 voting rights marches; the movie was made to commemorate these historic parades. Although the landmark anniversary was the clear reason for the song’s release, there are also underlying issues discussed in the lyrics which hint at a deeper root for the rhetorical situation. One of the major recent events that connects to the Civil Rights Movement is the Ferguson protests, which occurred after a white police officer shot and killed a black man. This event (and the public outrage that followed) is alluded to in the lyrics, which gives the audience the idea that the inspiration for the song came from recent occurrences that highlight stark similarities between the racial inequality of the 1960’s and that of now. Ultimately, the two main kairotic situations that this song explores is the 50th anniversary of the Selma Marches and the current Black Lives Matter campaign, which stems from conflicts over racial injustice.

-Angela Jacob

3 comments:

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  2. I really like how you managed to incorporate both time periods into this one kairotic analysis. After seeing that your group was using "Glory" as one of their pieces, I was curious as to which approach you would take regarding the appeal to Kairos. Given that the movie was certainly released at a very specific and perhaps even strategic time, analyzing the synergy of both the 1960's context and the 2014 context was definitely a good move.
    Agustin Aguerre

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  3. I agree with this post and comment. Of course, the release of the song is strategic and matters, but we can also think about the composition of the song and how it felt relevant to its writers, aside from material concerns of the time!

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