A Changed Charlotte
Mimetic Performance and Formation of Character in Charlotte Johannsen’s Disguised as a Nazi
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52610/rhs.v16i62.133Abstract
Rhetorical performance may shape both the audience and
the speaker's character. This classical topos is played out in the book
Disguised as a Nazi [in Danish: Forklædt som nazist, 2010], in which
21-year old Charlotte Johannsen, in collaboration with two reporters,
shares her experience of infiltrating a group of extreme rightwing
soccer supporters in her hometown of Aarhus, Denmark. Jo -
hannsen’s undercover story is framed by a clear distinction between
an authentic and a constructed self. This distinction, however, is
theo retically untenable and also proves difficult to maintain in practice.
Drawing on the classical notion of imitation in rhetorical
education as well as the contemporary concept of performativity,
this paper presents Johannsen’s rhetoric as an example of mimetic
performance that shapes – and may corrupt – the rhetor’s character
through inter action with various audiences. In this perspective the
distinction between the public and the private self is dissolved and
individual rhetorical situations become hard to demarcate. As a consequence,
Johannsen’s story of a challenged and changed character
should be considered a typical rather than an exceptional example of
rhetorical self-presentation.
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