Narratives in Kailash Satyarthi’s Nobel Peace Prize lecture: an analysis of rhetorical agency

In 2014, the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Indian-born Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistani-born Malala Yousafzai in recognition of their struggle against the suppression of children. They accepted the prize on behalf of the world’s children who were facing injustices such as poverty, poor labor conditions, forced servitude, and terrorism. Since the Nobel Foundation statutes require the Nobel Laureates to give a lecture at the Nobel Prize Ceremony, Kailash Satyarthi—whose speech is the focus of this study—delivered a Nobel Peace Prize lecture on December 10th, 2014, at Oslo City Hall, Norway. In his lecture, he raised the plight of millions of children on the global stage. This paper offers new insights into the narrative rhetoric concerning each child’s freedom in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture, which demonstrates his life-long mission to help children to enjoy their childhood. Adopting an overarching theoretical lens of narrative rhetoric and agency perspective, the paper analyses the speaker’s agency in his narrative of the plight of children in the face of injustices prevalent across societies and cultures. In doing so, the paper highlights Satyarthi’s employment of narrative rhetoric coupled with his rescuer agency, which appeals to the global citizens to create peaceful, humane, and just societies for children. We argue that his narrative serves as a powerful rhetorical device for arguments, which reinforces his ethos as a life-long champion of children’s rights.