Transcript Document

From meta-theory to analysis.
A case for discourse-theoretical analysis (DTA)
Nico Carpentier
I. Concepts
of discourse
theory
 Lack of clarity in the
definition of discourse
''Samples of spoken dialogue, in contrast
with written text'; 'spoken and written
language'; 'situational context of language
usage'; 'interaction between reader, writer
and text'; 'notion of genre' (for example
newspaper discourse).'
“Instead of gradually reducing the
rather fluctuating meaning of the word
“discourse”, I believe I have in fact
added to its meanings: treating it
sometimes as the general domain of
all statements, sometimes as an
individualizable group of statements,
and sometimes as a regulated
practice that accounts for a number of
statements.” (Foucault, AK, 1972: 80)
II. CDA & DT
1. critical discourse analysis
Holly trinity
-Ruth Wodak
-Teun Van Dijk
-Norman Fairclough
5 basic principles (Wodak & Fairclough, 1997)
-the social is partly linguistic-discursive
-discourse is both constitutive and
constituted
-language to be analysed within social context
-discourse functions ideologically
-research is critical
Archaeology
2. Foucauldian
discourse theory
 What are the rules for the
formation of a discourse?
Results in the description of the
discursive orders in a specific era
Genealogy
 How come the rules
for the formation of a
discourse into being?
Aimed at the political and
historical construction of
objectivity and truth.
Results in an archaeology
of the present
3. Laclau and Mouffe’s
discourse theory
Columbia University, New York
14/11/2000
Discourse theory as a
framework for analysis
• discourse theory in the strict sense
• social ontology
• between materialism and idealism
• between structure and agency
• political identity theory (Smith, 1999: 87)
• conflict theory
• post-Marxist ‘the declassing of the socialist project’
• hegemony and antagonism
• radical democratic politics
• radical pluralism
• hegemony of democracy
• agonism vs antagonism
Discourse theory
in the strict sense
• resistance against essentialism
 ‘universal exists, but it is an 'empty place which can be partially filled in a variety of ways' (Laclau,
1996: 59)
• strong focus on discourse
 ‘a structure in which meaning is constantly negotiated and constructed’ (Laclau, 1988: 254)
 'An earthquake or the falling of a brick is an event that certainly exists, in the sense that it occurs
here and now, independently of my will. But whether their specificity as objects is constructed in
terms of 'natural phenomena' or 'expressions of the wrath of God' depends upon the structuring of a
discursive field. What is denied is not that such objects exist externally to thought, but the rather
different assertions that they could constitute themselves as objects outside any discursive condition
of emergence.' (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985: 108)
• fixity vs non-fixity / contingency and rigidity
 Discourses are instable but ‘a discourse incapable of generating any fixity of meaning is the
discourse of the psychotic.’ (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985: 112)
The discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau en
Chantal Mouffe: a vocabulary
Articulation: linking
signifiers and transforming
their identity through the
articulatory practice
Nodal points: privileged
signifiers that guarantee (to a
certain degree) the stability of
the discourse
Field of discursivity: the
surplus (or residue) of
elements that prevents the
full saturation of meaning and
tempts signifiers to float
Discourse
The Discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau en
Chantal Mouffe: a vocabulary
'The practice of articulation consists in the construction
of nodal points which partially fix meaning; and the
partial character of this fixation proceeds from the
openness of the social, a result, in its turn, of the
constant overflowing of every discourse by the
infinitude of the field of discursivity.' (Laclau & Mouffe,
1985: 113)
The Discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau en
Chantal Mouffe: a vocabulary
Floating signifier:
a signifier that is
'overflowed with
meaning‘ – that can
assume different
meanings in
different
contexts/discourses
Subject position: the
position of subjects
within a discursive
structure
(‘lack’)
Discourse 1
Discourse 2
Overdetermination - the
impossibility to reach ‘a final
closure’ – space for
subjectivity - through the
dislocations of structures are
subjects forced to act …
The Discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau
and Chantal Mouffe: a vocabulary
'Whenever we use the category of 'subject' in this
text, we will do so in the sense of 'subject positions'
within a discursive structure. Subjects cannot,
therefore, be the origin of social relations-not even in
the limited sense of being endowed with powers that
render an experience possible- as all 'experience'
depends on precise discursive conditions of
possibility' (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985: 115).
 unanimity with Althusser’s critique on the autonomous
and completely self-transparent subject
 reject Althusser’s deterministic working of economy in
the last instance (as a 'new variant of essentialism')
The Discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau en
Chantal Mouffe: a vocabulary
Antagonism as a clash
between identities, where
these identities threaten and
constitute each other (or are
interdependent)
'the presence of the Other prevents me from being totally myself' (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985: 125)
Hegemonic 'practices are
an exemplary form of political
articulation which involves
linking together different
identities into a common
project.’ (Howarth, 1998: 279)
Antagonisms
1. Logic of equivalence  chains of
equivalence
A≈B≈C
"[T]he logic of equivalence functions by a system of
differences [...] instituting a political frontier
between two opposed camps [...]."
(Howarth & Stavrakakis, 2000: 11)
D = -(A, B, C)
"[f]or instance, if I say that, from the point of view of
the interests of the working class, liberals,
conservatives, and radicals are all the same, I have
transformed three elements that were different into
substitutes within a chain of equivalence."
(D, A) = -(B, C)
2. Logic of difference  disarticulating
elements from existing chains of equivalence
Ambition to become a social imaginary,
which is 'a horizon: it is not one among
other objects but an absolute limit which
structures a field of intelligibility and is
thus the condition of possibility of the
emergence of any object.' (Laclau, 1990:
64)
III. Some
problems
• 'anything other than the prolonged death throes of
Marxism in general' (Sim, 1997: 177)
• '[Laclau is] a disillusioned Althusserian Marxist of the
1968 new left vintage who now declares himself a postMarxist' (Gledhill, 1994: 183)
• idealist stance?
• primacy of the political over the social?
• explicit theoretical development
of basic concepts remains minimal
• absence of a methodology
• applicable?
IV. From DT
to DTA
DTA
Discourse studies
Qualitative research methodology
DTA
CDA
Discourse studies
Qualitative research methodology
DA
DTA
Discourse studies
Qualitative research methodology
Narratology
Qualitative research methodology
(as open textual analysis)
Qualitative
research
methodology
Quantitative
research
methodology
Back to DTA
Gedanken ohne
Inhalt sind leer.
Anschauungen
ohne Begriffe sind
blind.
Thoughts without contents are
empty. Observations without
concepts are blind.
DTA
Discourse theory as
sensitizing concepts
&
Discourse theory to
generate sensitizing
concepts
DTA
Discourse studies
Qualitative research methodology
Sensitizing concepts
V. Examples
• construction of identities and subject
positions (media professionals,
ordinary people, journalists, …)
• identities of media organisations
(alternative / community media)
• construction of concepts in media
(discourse on participation, quality,
freedom, objectivity, death …)
•…