Honors Theses

Advisor

Patrick Thomas

Department

English

Publication Date

4-1-2022

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

The selection, nomination, and swearing in of Justice Amy Coney Barrett took place amid an already tension-ridden political and cultural landscape. As a figurehead of women’s rights and equality, Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not want President Trump to choose her successor. Her dying wish was for her seat to be replaced after the 2020 presidential election. Nevertheless, Trump moved his Supreme Court nominee through the process at an unprecedented rate, and within six weeks of Ginsburg’s passing, a conservative constitutional originalist named Amy Coney Barrett took her place.

The nature of the Supreme Court position, the contrasts between the two women, and the way in which the events unfolded wield an opportunity to compare the ways in which Ginsburg and Barrett were discussed on Twitter during the six-week transition period. This project utilizes feminist critical discourse theory and the study of intertextuality to uncover trends and patterns that may speak to larger observations about how women of power are discussed on social media platforms. The ways in which Ginsburg and Barrett are connected, through position and title, allow for careful comparison and analysis of Twitter discourse that will ultimately reveal the ways in which the women are linked rhetorically. Twitter users, whether aware or not, created a database of firsthand accounts, reactions, and personal retellings of a historical moment.

Permission Statement

This item is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and may only be used for noncommercial, educational, and scholarly purposes.

Keywords

Undergraduate research

Disciplines

English Language and Literature

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