The day after:Rhetorical vision in an ironic frame

This essay presents a fantasy theme analysis of the issue of nuclear war as it emerges from a comparison of personal statements and the film The Day After. These forms of discourse resonate with one another and reflect a rhetorical vision consisting in part of actors as victims, the bomb as antagonist, the scene as one of rubble, and plot as one of acts of destruction, death, and attempts to survive. It is suggested that a new deep structure of irony underlies the rhetorical vision of nuclear war and the implications of this frame for the nuclear war issue are discussed.