Constitutive rhetoric: The case of the peuple québécois

The rhetoric of Quebec sovereignty is based upon an appeal to a particular motivated subject, the Québécois. Rhetorical theory usually takes such a subject as a given. A theory of constitutive rhetoric, based on the principle of identification, can account for the constitution of subjects of this type. Such subjects, agents within ideological discourse, are interpellated or called into being through rhetorical narratives. Such narratives constitute collective political subjects through a series of formal discursive effects. These effects result in a discursively constituted subjectivity that can form the basis for an ideological appeal to action.