Provocative greenness and staged rebellion: Youth’s rhetorical performances of environmental citizenship

Abstract

The paper examines the rhetorical use and function of a provocative “rebel” persona in argumentative texts, collected from the youth column in Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten and the national speech contest for high school students, Ta ordet!, seeking to influence the audience’s attitudes towards green lifestyles. Approaching “the rebel” as a persona construction and a rhetorical appeal, I explore how young people engage with and participate in environmental debates and how their rhetorical intervention invites the audience to experience and perform environmental citizenship.