Mots. Les langages du politique, n°122/2020

At a time when there have never been so many ways of expressing oneself in the public sphere, where what people have to say is subject to greater and greater scrutiny, and is repeated, shared and commented on, we can pose the question as to what leads one speaker to quote another, to borrow their words, to refer to their remarks, to allude to things they have said. This issue of Mots, therefore, examines different forms of reiteration when a topical issue or a controversy emerges and establishes itself in public debate, or when discourse or characters are pitched against one another in the current political arena. The contributions in this issue shed new light on various forms of quotation, reiteration and misappropriation in various socio-political contexts such as parliamentary debates (Cécile Desoutter and Claudia Cagninelli), televised political debates (Siham Hocini) and revolutionary events (Zoé Carle). The purpose of this issue is to report on the different ways in which utterances are reiterated and the forms they take, and to determine the aims and particular effects of this discourse when publicly re-iterated in this way.