Discourse Theory
Gillian Rose's definition of discourse
"Groups of statements which structure the way something is thought, and the way we behave on the basis of that thinking. I.e: discourse is a particular knowledge about the world which shapes how the world is understood and how things are done in it." We don't come into the world with ideas about how we should act or who we are. DA say that girls aren't instinctively born to love pink and barbies, that there are discourses in place in society that label our interests and label us as boy or girl.
Texts/images
*social constructions* created by someone with the purpose of presenting a particular version of reality with the intent to persuade you of something.
What is a discourse?
A well-established meaning or idea about a topic which shapes how we think and talk about it. positioning of homo and hetero sexuality in society. Discourses shape how we think and talk about our world.
Element 2 of discourse as social action
Discourse involves work - everytime we speak we're actively constructing our own version of reality, working towards forming our own perspective of reality. What kind of version of themselves is this person trying to portray.
What is DA#2?
Discourse on practices of institutions, issues of power, regimes of truth and technologies. Power relations in organisations. Practices of institutions
What is the first type of DA (DA#1)?
Discourse through visual images and verbal texts (transcript)
How do ads shape the discourse you identify with?
Discourses influence people's choices • Ads use words, images, colours and other meaningful aspects to influence the audience - always use the most ideal image of a person.
What do we need to do in DA?
Identify the discourses in the given text/image and understand how they shape meaning, subjectivity, and practices
What are some methods involved in Discourse Analysis?
Image, text - what is it trying to persuade us of. If there is no absolute truth then what is the image trying to convince us of - questioning everything, subjective.
The first element of Focoult's discourse as social action
Language is constitutive - language is active, used to construct the world. Constructing a version of reality of the world everytime we speak.
Post structualists such as Focoult believed
Meaning can't be separated from culture or society. The notion that people can claim to have an absolute truth about anything is rejected. Language is a representation. Representation and production of meaning through language.
Element 3 of discourse as social action
The co-production of meaning - Meaning depends on the audience. Meaning depends on the interaction between the speaker and the audience. Words are always relational, can gather meaning of a word by knowing the meaning of the opposite word. Ie: know what courage means by knowing what words the opposite of it mean.
What does an image or text embody?
The political and social values of the time
What are some examples of a discourse?
i. Positioning of homo and hetero sexuality in society. ii. Academic discourse, take on the student role. iii. work discourse, home discourse.
Some questions to ask yourself while performing a DA#2
look at details of institution (e.g., architecture, layout, what's in the basement, what's the main attraction, where do people hangout, observe people working there, what is the roll of labelling, how do people adopt self-surveillance techniques)? - how does it persuade? - who is the intended audience?
Some questions to ask yourself while performing a DA#1
• - how does image/text construct a particular version of reality/ social world? • - how is it trying to persuade? • - what is this ad aiming to do? How does it achieve this aim? • - who is the intended audience? • - what are the details? (e.g., dress style, facial expression, location, tone of voice, length of pauses, laughs... pay care to the minutiae of detail)
