USA

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the growing literature of constitutive rhetoric, originally coined by Maurice Charland. Through a case study of the US/Mexico border fence, I ilustrate that the communicative tactics of articulation, appropriation and image events have the potential to act as interpellative strategies of identity construction. Through my analisys, i show how these strategies function in constitutive rhetoric in both verbal discourses and in visual rhetoric through image events. I also note that lack of discourses in an argument may have implications that are equally significant to those that are present.