This week’s lecture focused on representation
involving discourse analysis. From the key reading of Long and Wall we can see
a key theorist in discourse is Michel Foucault who defines discourse as
'practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak.' (Long and
Wall 2012, 363)
'Foucault meant by his definition that discourses are ideas in
embedded in what we do, say and think and that these create the terms upon
which we know the world.' (Long and Wall 2012, 364)
Foucault did not use the term ideology as he wanted to move away
from the idea of hierarchies and Marxist thinking. Instead Foucault 'speaks of
regimes of truth' that are produced by practices and languages.' (Long and Wall
2012, 264) in other words known as discourse.
The key reading of David Machin and Andrea Mayr focuses on the
idea of critical discourse analysis (CDA). Here the idea is that 'critical
discourse analysis has its origins in 'critical linguistics'. (Machin and Mayr 2012, 2) Meaning that
critical linguistics 'show how language and grammar can be used as ideological
instruments.' (Machin and Mayr 2012, 2) This is the view that language is a
social construction, 'language both shapes and is shaped by society.' (Machin
and Mayr 2012, 4) This relates to power as 'CDA assumes that power relations
are discursive. In other words, power is transmitted and practised through
discourse.' (Machin and Mayr 2012, 4)
With the example of a speech by an old British Prime Minister
(Tony Blair) 'Fairclough and Wodak (1977: 273) argue that such language
reflects and reproduces power relations in society.' (Machin and Mayr 2012, 6)
The idea that the language he used during his speech implied that we should
'know' and 'understand'. However, it became recognised that 'meaning is
generally communicated not only through language but also through other
semiotic modes' (Machin and Mayr 2012, 6) and this bought about the idea of
multimodal CDA.
The key reading also considers the concept of 'linguistic
determinism, where our thinking is determined by our language.' (Machin and
Mayr 2012, 16). However some linguists see it from a view that 'the way we see
the world might be influenced by the kind of language we use rather than be determined
by it.' (Machin and Mayr 2012, 16) The reading consists of the idea that the
language we use is determined by social factors meaning that 'we use language
to create a society' (Machin and Mayr 2012, 17) and this uses the idea of
communication as a social semiotic theory.
The discourse analysis of 'The L Word' discusses the way in which
sexuality is represented in the series. 'Lesbian sexual identity is represented
as settled and stable' (L word page 179) while 'bisexuality is, in itself,
"gory".' (L word page 181) The L Word discourse analysis raises the
dominance and power of lesbianism producing an ideology of it being as a norm
unlike bisexuality. However the representation of lesbians in 'The L Word' are
of pretty women wearing make-up, when Shane is introduced to the show she fits
the stereotype of a butch lesbian as 'she is symbolically and physically
"boyish" in nature' (L word page 186) thus not fitting the ideology
of the 'normal' lesbian in 'The L Word'.
Bibliography
Beirne, Rebecca (2008) Televising
Queer Women, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 179 - 193
Long, P and Wall, T (2012) 'Discourse, power and media’ IN Media Studies:
Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), London: Pearson. pp 363-369
Machin, D and Mayr, A (2012) How to do a Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Sage. pp 1-29
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