TY - CHAP

T1 - The Regretful Acknowledgement

T2 - A Dignified End to a Disgraceful Story?

AU - Villadsen, Lisa Storm

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - The ambivalence in readings of political apologies as being ‘pure’ or being ‘strategic’ calls for close rhetorical scrutiny. Yet, it is remarkable how the recent ‘rhetorical turn’ in apology studies has given sparse attention to textual analysis at the levels of the actual apology texts and the accompanying political debates.In this chapter I offer a close rhetorical reading of an open hearing in the Danish Parliament’s Commission on Social Affairs concerning the Minister of Social Affair’s refusal to apologize in response to a report documenting mistreatment of children in state-supervised orphanages. The minister uses the familiar strategy of expressing regret instead of apologizing. Expressions of regret are often seen as being more at the ‘strategic’ end of the sincerity spectrum. My analysis aims at discussing the meaningfulness of this strategy of ‘regretful acknowledgement’ and to challenge the dichotomous thinking on sincerity versus purity that runs as an undercurrent in much literature on the topic.

AB - The ambivalence in readings of political apologies as being ‘pure’ or being ‘strategic’ calls for close rhetorical scrutiny. Yet, it is remarkable how the recent ‘rhetorical turn’ in apology studies has given sparse attention to textual analysis at the levels of the actual apology texts and the accompanying political debates.In this chapter I offer a close rhetorical reading of an open hearing in the Danish Parliament’s Commission on Social Affairs concerning the Minister of Social Affair’s refusal to apologize in response to a report documenting mistreatment of children in state-supervised orphanages. The minister uses the familiar strategy of expressing regret instead of apologizing. Expressions of regret are often seen as being more at the ‘strategic’ end of the sincerity spectrum. My analysis aims at discussing the meaningfulness of this strategy of ‘regretful acknowledgement’ and to challenge the dichotomous thinking on sincerity versus purity that runs as an undercurrent in much literature on the topic.

UR - https://brill.com/display/title/27518?contents=toc-66382

U2 - 10.1163/9789401209533_012

DO - 10.1163/9789401209533_012

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9789042036956

VL - 86

T3 - At the Interface/Probing the Boundaries

SP - 209

EP - 228

BT - Public Apology between Ritual and Regret

A2 - Cuypers, Daniël

A2 - Janssen, Daniel

A2 - Haers, Jacques

A2 - Segaert, Barbara

PB - Brill | Rodopi

ER -