Discourse and Identity

Author: Anna De Fina
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107320607
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
The relationship between language, discourse and identity has always been a major area of sociolinguistic investigation. In more recent times, the field has been revolutionized as previous models - which assumed our identities to be based on stable relationships between linguistic and social variables - have been challenged by pioneering new approaches to the topic. This volume brings together a team of leading experts to explore discourse in a range of social contexts. By applying a variety of analytical tools and concepts, the contributors show how we build images of ourselves through language, how society moulds us into different categories, and how we negotiate our membership of those categories. Drawing on numerous interactional settings (the workplace; medical interviews; education), in a variety of genres (narrative; conversation; interviews), and amongst different communities (immigrants; patients; adolescents; teachers), this revealing volume sheds light on how our social practices can help to shape our identities.

Discourse and Identity

Author: Bethan Benwell
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748626530
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
'Identity' is a central organizing feature of our social world. Across the social sciences and humanities, it is increasingly treated as something that is actively and publicly accomplished in discourse. This book defines identity in its broadest sense, in terms of how people display who they are to each other. Each chapter examines a different discursive environment in which people do 'identity work': everyday conversation, institutional settings, narrative and stories, commodified contexts, spatial locations, and virtual environments. The authors describe and demonstrate a range of discourse and interaction analytic methods as they are put to use in the study of identity, including 'performative' analyses, conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, critical discourse analysis, narrative analysis, positioning theory, discursive psychology and politeness theory. The book aims to give readers a clear sense of the coherence (or otherwise) of these different approaches, the practical steps taken in analysis, and their situation within broader critical debates. Through the use of detailed and original 'identity' case studies in a variety of spoken and written texts in order, the book offers a practical and accessible insight into what the discursive accomplishment of identity actually looks like, and how to go about analyzing it.

Discourse, the Body, and Identity

Author: J. Coupland
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403918546
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
The 'body' and 'discourse' seem diametrically opposed, but we interact with our bodies and represent ourselves and our relationships in bodily terms. This volume integrates new studies by leading researchers in sociolinguistics, sociology, social psychology and cultural theory. It explores the many interfaces of body and discourse, organized under three main themes: the body as an interactional resource; ideological representations of the body; and discursive constructions of the body in normal and pathological contexts.

Discourse and Identity Formation

Author: Lamya Alkooheji
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027265011
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 309

Book Description
The book explores eleven debates held at the Bahraini Council of Representatives (or the Parliament) over 2007-2010 to comprehend how parliamentary discourse contributes towards identity formation within Bahraini society. Within the framework of critical discourse studies, the book traces the ideological struggle over power in the linguistic content of legislative discourse through a range of discursive strategies and devices. The authors contend that the discursive choices across the political spectrum in the legislative debates reflected strong sectarian characteristics which contained in it the seeds of political unrest of 2011, the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ of Bahrain. Parliamentary rhetoric and its resonance in the public sphere, the authors argue, revealed the underlying contradictions in Bahraini society. The book highlights the significance of legislative discourse as a platform of social cohesion, and its instability being symptomatic of contradictions within society.

Security, Defense Discourse and Identity in NATO and Europe

Author: Falk Ostermann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429999437
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
Analyzing changes in the role and place of NATO, European integration, and Franco-American relations in foreign policy discourse under Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, this book provides an original perspective on French foreign policy and its identity construction. The book employs a novel research design for the analysis of foreign policies, which can be used beyond the case of France, by combining the discourse theory of the Essex School with Interpretive Policy Analysis to examine political ideas and how they are organized into a foreign policy identity. On these grounds, the volume undertakes a comparative analysis of parliamentary and executive discourse of President Chirac’s failed attempt at NATO reintegration in the 1990s, Sarkozy’s successful attempt in the 2000s, and the Libyan War. Ostermann depicts French foreign policy and identity as turning away from the European Union, atlanticizing, and losing its American nemesis. As a result, France uses a much more pragmatic, de-unionized, and pro-American strategy to implement foreign policy objectives than before. Offering a new and innovative explanation for a major change in French foreign policy and grand strategy, this book will be of great interest to scholars of NATO, European defense cooperation, and foreign policy.

Analysing Identities in Discourse

Author: Rosana Dolón
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027290865
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Book Description
The discursive construction of identity is often under the control of the dominant forces in society and frequently results in forms of manipulation and abuse. This awareness led to the celebration of the First International Conference on CDA (València 2004), where over three-hundred academics working in the field of Critical Discourse Analysis became actively engaged in this important issue. The seven studies included in this volume have been selected as representative of those areas of human experience that have been given most intellectual attention and considered to be in fact in need for critical unravelling. Ethnic categorization in multicultural classrooms, patriotic discourse construction in Chinese readers, the denial of Palestinian identity in schoolbooks, the diverse constructions of European identities, Arabs constructing themselves on the worldwide web, identity construction in sexual assault trials, the representations of a dangerous ‘other’ in cases of PLWHAs, are the contextual perspectives embraced in this book to account for forms of power abuse in the discursive construction of identities.

Discourse and Lifespan Identity

Author: Nikolas Coupland
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Book Description
"This book sculpts a new direction for sociolinguistics inasmuch as it incorporates lifespan studies. . . .into the realm of language and context. It makes us realize that our senses of "who we are" is a conglomerate of several different dimensions: temporal, social, linguistic." --Studies in Second Language Acquisition "The editors of this volume have successfully put together a group of articles which address the role of language in creating our developing self, by attempting to answer how our identity is achieved across the lifespan through the use of language in relationships. --Language in Society "The volume's strengths include clear illustration of the role of discourse in constituting self, especially with regard to aging; evidence overturning the hegemony of rigid 'life-stage/cycle' models for understanding lifespan development; and presentation of innovative methods for lifespan research. . . . The volume offers insightful contributions to discourse studies of the lifespan." --Discourse & Society "This is a fascinating book in the Sage Language and Language Behavior series. . . . Although it is written primarily for researchers and theoreticians in sociology and linguistics, there is application to child and adult development, gerontology, oral history, and even family systems theory. . . . This introduction to lifespan sociolinguistics is both clear and compelling." --Clinical Gerontologist How are social development, maturation, aging, stability, and change reflected in human interaction and in social contexts? How, where, and when does age surface as a theme in everyday talk? What social rituals endorse our accepted views of "coming of age," "turning forty," "entering retirement," or generally "acting our age"? What can language achieve for us? A multidisciplinary cast of contributors answers such questions through empirical studies and theoretical interpretations. Provocative and accessibly written, this volume explores discursive practices in which age-related identities are formulated, challenged, or consolidated. From mother-daughter relationships to marital communication, Discourse and Lifespan Identity takes a dynamic view of lifespan development in today's culture. Discourse and Lifespan Identity offers valuable information to students and professionals of interpersonal communication, speech communication, social psychology, developmental psychology, aging, and sociology.

Surveillance and Identity

Author: David Barnard-Wills
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317048180
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Book Description
Surveillance and Identity analyses the discourse of surveillance in the contemporary United Kingdom, drawing upon public language from central government, governmental agencies, activist movements, and from finance and banking. Examining the logics of these discourses and revealing the manner in which they construct problems of governance in the light of the insecurity of identity, this book shows how identity is fundamentally linked to surveillance, as governmental discourses privilege surveillance as a response to social problems. In drawing links between new technologies and national surveillance projects or concerns surrounding phenomena such as identity fraud, Surveillance and Identity presents a new understanding of identity - the model of 'surveillance identity' - demonstrating that this is often applied to individuals by powerful organisations at the same time as the concept is being actively contested in public language. The first comprehensive study of the discursive politics of surveillance in the UK, this book makes significant contributions to surveillance theory, governmentality theory, and to political and social identity theories. As such, it will be of interest to social scientists of all kinds working on questions of public discourse and political communication, identity, surveillance and the relationship between the individual and the state.

Writing and Identity

Author: Roz Ivani?
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027217971
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 389

Book Description
Writing is not just about conveying 'content' but also about the representation of self. (One of the reasons people find writing difficult is that they do not feel comfortable with the 'me' they are portraying in their writing. Academic writing in particular often poses a conflict of identity for students in higher education, because the 'self' which is inscribed in academic discourse feels alien to them.)The main claim of this book is that writing is an act of identity in which people align themselves with socio-culturally shaped subject positions, and thereby play their part in reproducing or challenging dominant practices and discourses, and the values, beliefs and interests which they embody. The first part of the book reviews recent understandings of social identity, of the discoursal construction of identity, of literacy and identity, and of issues of identity in research on academic writing. The main part of the book is based on a collaborative research project about writing and identity with mature-age students, providing: - a case study of one writer's dilemmas over the presentation of self;- a discussion of the way in which writers' life histories shape their presentation of self in writing;- an interview-based study of issues of ownership, and of accommodation and resistance to conventions for the presentation of self;- linguistic analysis of the ways in which multiple, often contradictory, interests, values, beliefs and practices are inscribed in discourse conventions, which set up a range of possibilities for self-hood for writers.The book ends with implications of the study for research on writing and identity, and for the learning and teaching of academic writing.The book will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of social identity, literacy, discourse analysis, rhetoric and composition studies, and to all those concerned to understand what is involved in academic writing in order to provide wider access to higher education.

The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse Studies

Author: Anna De Fina
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108560164
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 911

Book Description
Discourse studies, the study of the ways in which language is used in texts and contexts, is a fast-moving and increasingly diverse field. With contributions from leading and upcoming scholars from across the world, and covering cutting-edge research, this Handbook offers an up-to-date survey of Discourse Studies. It is organized according to perspectives and areas of engagement, with each chapter providing an overview of the historical development of its topic, the main current issues, debates and synergies, and future directions. The Handbook presents new perspectives on well-established themes such as narrative, conversation-analytic and cognitive approaches to discourse, while also embracing a range of up-to-the-minute topics from post-humanism to digital surveillance, recent methodological orientations such as linguistic landscapes and multimodal discourse analysis, and new fields of engagement such as discourses on race, religion and money.