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Abstract

This study investigates Ghislaine Maxwell’s 2016 courtroom interview. Specifically, focusing on Maxwell’s language choices and how she presents herself to the courtroom. In this interview, Maxwell has been summoned to court following a defamation suit from Virginia Roberts, a former sexual abuse victim of Jeffrey Epstein.
Until recently, the majority of investigations and media coverage have focused on the the deceased sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Consequently, a lack of acknowledgement has been made to his alleged accomplices, for example, his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine Maxwell’s discourse in terms of presenting herself as innocent, deploying memory as a discursive resource and apportioning blame to others.
A Discursive Psychology approach has been applied in the analysis of this study, focusing on the decisive devices found in Maxwell’s discourse. This framework has been selected due to viewing discourse as an object, exploring how people manage psychological concepts and how discourse is affected by interactional context.
The main aims of this research are to explore how Maxwell utilises discursive devices in her courtroom interview, considering the links between Discursive Psychology and the themes of resistance to interview questions, memory and deflecting the focus onto Virginia Roberts.
The data for this qualitative study has been collected, through 331 examples of Maxwell’s speech. Each example is from the courtroom transcript and in reference to Jeffrey Epstein, due to the close relationship shared between the pair.
This research conveys that Maxwell’s discourse has been strategically selected, presenting herself as innocent through a supposed lack of memory and by placing blame onto Virginia Roberts. This is achieved through the common discursive devices she deploys such as stake inoculation, assessments, and extreme case formulations.

Course: English Language and Linguistics - BA - C2742S

Date Deposited: 2022-07-25

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13934.html