88091:

in Relation to Film,

Language
and:
CULTURE, POWER, ETHICS
AND REPRESENTATION

Dr Sarah
Maitland

www.facebook.com/transcast

Discourse is language as social practice

determined by social structures. (2001:
14)
Social practice is [f]irstly, that language
is a part of society, and not somehow
external to it. Secondly, that language is a
social process. And thirdly, that language
is a socially conditioned process,
conditioned that is by other (nonlinguistic) parts of society. (2001: 1819)

we can say that power

in discourse is to do with
powerful participants
controlling and
constraining the
contributions of nonpowerful participants.
(2001: 38-39)

Ideology
noun
1 (plural ideologies) a system of ideas
and ideals, especially one which forms
the basis of economic or political theory
and policy: the ideology of republicanism
the set of beliefs characteristic of a social
group or individual: a critique of
bourgeois ideology
2 [mass noun] archaic the science of
ideas; the study of their origin and
nature.
archaic visionary speculation, especially
of an unrealistic or idealistic nature.

Ideologies are closely linked to power, because

the nature of the ideological assumptions
embedded in particular conventions, and so the
nature of those conventions themselves, depends
on the power relations which underlie the
conventions; and because they are a means of
legitimising existing social relations and
differences in power, simply through the
recurrence of ordinary, familiar ways of behaving
which take these relations and power differences
for granted. (Fairclough 2001: 2)

 Language as a form of social practice

How social and political domination is
produced and reproduced through text
Language as primary domain of ideology
and struggles for power
Draws from social theory to examine
ideologies and power relations in discourse

 Series of techniques for insights into the

way discourse produces or resists
inequalities or domination
Relates text to socio-political context
Explores how power relations are
legitimised or promulgated
Deconstructs motivation, manipulation of
reader response, inclusion/exclusion of
context, agenda, author and audience

 Fairclough Discourse as text (choices in

structural, grammatical and lexical
construction); Discourse as social practice
(ideological framework that situates
discourse)
Widdowson Shared realities (ideologies
common to author and reader)

 Exploring the use, function and effect of:

metaphor; lexical choice; semantic fields;
rhetoric; demagogy; how the text influences
relations between author/audience; how
the text is made meaningful to audience;
allusions to ideological practices intended
to resonate with audience

 What CDA can you do on the following

speech?
http://www.britishpoliticalspeech.org/spe
ech-archive.htm?speech=324
What does Orwell have to say?

88091:
in Relation to Film,

Language
and:
CULTURE, POWER, ETHICS
AND REPRESENTATION