Rhetorical criticism as limit work

Friedrich Nietzsche's aesthetic language philosophy and theory of history, coupled with Michel Foucault's limit attitude, combine to create the foundation for limit work as a form of rhetorical criticism. As a rhetorical theory, limit work is designed to map the limits imposed by identity formation, including the strategies of remembrance accompanying articulations of collective belonging, through the analysis of controversial speech. In this essay, after reviewing the identity logic derived from Nietzsche, Foucault, and others, I exemplify the utility of limit work by applying it to the process of national identity construction in 1988 West Germany, 1993 Russia, and 1995 Quebec.