Discourse denotes written and spoken communications such as:
In semantics and discourse analysis: A generalization of the concept of conversation within all
modalities and contexts. The totality of codified language used in
a given field of intellectual enquiry and of social practice, such as legal discourse,
medical discourse, religious discourse, et cetera.
In the work of Michel Foucault, and that of the social theoreticians he inspired: discourse
describes “an entity of sequences, of signs, in that they are enouncements”.
An enouncement is not a unit of semiotic signs, but an abstract construct that allows the
signs to assign and communicate specific, repeatable relations to, between, and among
objects, subjects, and statements. Hence, a discourse is composed of semiotic sequences
between and among objects, subjects, and statements. The term discursive formation conceptually
describes the regular communications that produce such discourses. As a philosopher,
Foucault applied the discursive formation in the analyses of large bodies of knowledge,
such as political economy and natural history. In the first sense-usage, the word discourse
is studied in corpus linguistics. In the second sense, and in the third sense, the analyses
of discourse are effected in the intellectual traditions that investigate and determine
the relations among language and structure and agency, as in the fields of sociology,
feminist studies, anthropology, ethnography, cultural studies, literary theory, and the
philosophy of science. Moreover, because discourses are bodies of text meant to communicate specific
data, information, and knowledge, there exist internal relations within a given discourse,
and external relations among discourses, because a discourse does not exist in isolation, but
in relation to other discourses, which are determined and established by means of inter
discourse and interdiscursivity. Hence, within a field of intellectual enquiry, the practitioners
occasionally debate “What is” and “What is not” discourse, according to the conceptual
meanings used in the given field of study.
The humanities In the humanities and in the social sciences,
the term discourse describes a formal way of thinking that can be expressed through
language, a social boundary that defines what can be said about a specific topic.
Discourses are seen to affect our views on all things; it is not possible to avoid discourse.
For example, two notably distinct discourses can be used about various guerrilla movements
describing them either as "freedom fighters" or "terrorists". In other words, the chosen
discourse provides the vocabulary, expressions and perhaps also the style needed to communicate.
Discourses are embedded in different rhetorical genres and metagenres that constrain and enable
them. That is language talking about language, for instance the American Psychiatric Association's
DSMIV manual tells which terms have to be used in talking about mental health, thereby
mediating meanings and dictating practices of the professionals of psychology and psychiatry.
Discourse is closely linked to different theories of power and state, at least as long as defining
discourses is seen to mean defining reality itself. This conception of discourse is largely
derived from the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault.
Modernism Modern theorists were focused on achieving
progress and believed in the existence of natural and social laws which could be used
universally to develop knowledge and thus a better understanding of society. Modernist
theorists were preoccupied with obtaining the truth and reality and sought to develop
theories which contained certainty and predictability. Modernist theorists therefore viewed discourse
as being relative to talking or way of talking and understood discourse to be functional.
Discourse and language transformations are ascribed to progress or the need to develop
new or more “accurate” words to describe new discoveries, understandings, or areas
of interest. In modern times, language and discourse are dissociated from power and ideology
and instead conceptualized as “natural” products of common sense usage or progress.
Modernism further gave rise to the liberal discourses of rights, equality, freedom, and
justice; however, this rhetoric masked substantive inequality and failed to account for differences,
according to Regnier. Structuralism
Structuralist theorists, such as Ferdinand de Saussure and Jacques Lacan, argue that
all human actions and social formations are related to language and can be understood
as systems of related elements. This means that the “…individual elements of a system
only have significance when considered in relation to the structure as a whole, and
that structures are to be understood as self-contained, self-regulated, and self-transforming entities.”
In other words, it is the structure itself that determines the significance, meaning
and function of the individual elements of a system. Structuralism has made an important
contribution to our understanding of language and social systems. Saussure’s theory of
language highlights the decisive role of meaning and signification in structuring human life
more generally. Postmodernism
Following the perceived limitations of the modern era, emerged postmodern theory. Postmodern
theorists rejected modernist claims that there was one theoretical approach that explained
all aspects of society. Rather, postmodernist theorists were interested in examining the
variety of experience of individuals and groups and emphasized differences over similarities
and common experiences. In contrast to modern theory, postmodern theory
is more fluid and allows for individual differences as it rejected the notion of social laws.
Postmodern theorists shifted away from truth seeking and instead sought answers for how
truths are produced and sustained. Postmodernists contended that truth and knowledge is plural,
contextual, and historically produced through discourses. Postmodern researchers therefore
embarked on analyzing discourses such as texts, language, policies and practices.
French social theorist Michel Foucault developed a notion of discourse in his early work, especially
the Archaeology of knowledge. In Discursive Struggles Within Social Welfare: Restaging
Teen Motherhood, Iara Lessa summarizes Foucault's definition of discourse as “systems of thoughts
composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically
construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak." Foucault traces the role of discourses
in wider social processes of legitimating and power, emphasizing the construction of
current truths, how they are maintained and what power relations they carry with them.”
Foucault later theorized that discourse is a medium through which power relations produce
speaking subjects. Foucault argued that power and knowledge are inter-related and therefore
every human relationship is a struggle and negotiation of power. Foucault further stated
that power is always present and can both produce and constrain the truth. Discourse
according to Foucault is related to power as it operates by rules of exclusion. Discourse
therefore is controlled by objects, what can be spoken of; ritual, where and how one may
speak; and the privileged, who may speak. Coining the phrases power-knowledge Foucault
stated knowledge was both the creator of power and creation of power. An object becomes a
"node within a network." In his work, The Archaeology of Knowledge, Foucault uses the
example of a book to illustrate a node within a network. A book is not made up of individual
words on a page, each of which has meaning, but rather "is caught up in a system of references
to other books, other texts, other sentences." The meaning of that book is connected to a
larger, overarching web of knowledge and ideas to which it relates.
One of the key discourses that Foucault identified as part of his critique of power-knowledge
was that of neoliberalism, which he related very closely to his conceptualization of governmentality
in his lectures on biopolitics. This trajectory of Foucault's thinking has been taken up widely
within Human Geography. See also
Analysis of subjective logics Critical discourse analysis
Discipline and Punish Discourse Community
Episteme Interdiscursivity
Parrhesia Political discourse analysis
Postcolonial literature The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity - A
1985 essay by Jürgen Habermas, regarded as an important contribution to Frankfurt School
critical theory. Notes
References M. Foucault. Discipline and Punish. New York:
Pantheon. ISBN 0-394-49942-5. M. Foucault. "Two Lectures," in Colin Gordon,
ed., Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews. New York: Pantheon.
M. Foucault. Society Must Be Defended. New York: Picador. ISBN 0-312-42266-0.
A. McHoul & W. Grace. A Foucault primer: Discourse, power, and the subject. Melbourne: Melbourne
University Press. ISBN 0-8147-5480-5. J. Motion & S. Leitch. "A toolbox for public
relations: The oeuvre of Michel Foucault". Public Relations Review 33: 263–268. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2007.05.004.
R. Mullaly. Structural social work: Ideology, theory, and practice. New York: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 0-7710-6673-2. B. Norton. "Language, identity, and
the ownership of English". TESOL Quarterly) 31: 409–429. doi:10.2307/3587831. JSTOR 3587831.
Research as resistance: Critical, indigenous and anti-oppressive approaches.(2005). In
Brown L. A., Strega S., Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.
S. Strega. The view from the poststructural margins: Epistemology and methodology reconsidered.
In L. Brown, & S. Strega, Research as resistance. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.
J. Sunderland. Gendered discourses. New York: PalgraveMacmillan.
External links Interdisciplinary research portal discourse
analysis. Register and get the news in discourse analysis.
Beyond Open Access: Open Discourse, the next great equalizer, Retrovirology 2006, 3:55