A Study On The Intertextuality Of The Inaugural Addresses Of The U.S. Presidents And Biblical Allusions

There are abundant examples of typical intertextuality in the inaugural address of the US president (IAUSPs). For a country of Christianity like the U.S., the biblical text naturally keeps running through IAUSPs that have come before and that will follow. Intertextuality with biblical allusions gives IAUSPs the feature of texts in the text, sub-texts under the text. With a sample of IAUSPs from 44 terms of office and textual research on the biblical allusions therein, this article starts from "the Bible in the texts" and moves on to "the Bible hidden behind the texts" through the theoretical framework of cross-cultural pragmatics so as to bring to focus the concept of freedom in IAUSPs and the pragmatic effect of the Biblical allusions on IAUSPs.The first chapter provides a general introduction to IAUSPs, focusing on the studies concerned at home and abroad and the significance of the present study. The second chapter briefly explains intertextuality of biblical allusions in IAUSPs, including the definition and functions of intertextuality, the definition of biblical allusion, and its manifestation of intertextuality in IAUSPs. The third chapter analyzes the use of biblical allusions in IAUSPs in the concept of "freedom" through detailed exemplification. The fourth chapter further analyzes the cause of biblical allusion used in IAUSPs. The fifth chapter is the conlusion in which suggestions are proposed as to how to study intertextuality between biblical allusions and IAUSPs in a more comprehensive way.