The Politics of Fear and Activism for Future: Political (Critical) Discourse Analysis

Name: The Politics of Fear and Activism for Future: Political (Critical) Discourse Analysis
Start: 2024-10-21
End: 2025-02-03

2024 is the year of elections. In June, the European Union elected the European Parliament, resulting in a shift further right. Further local, regional, and national elections will follow in the summer and the fall. Particularly the elections in the United Kingdom in July and in the United States in November are being awaited anxiously. Political communication traditionally offers a rich pool of linguistic material for analysis, ranging from political speeches to election campaigns, posters, and videos, and much more. However, soci(et)al issues and debates are not only fought out and negotiated in the realm of professional politics; people also take to the streets to voice protest and draw the public attention to urgent matters. Furthermore, the internet and particularly social media offer an easily accessible and handable outlet where people can publicly share their opinions.

This seminar is designed as an introduction to Critical Digital Discourse Analysis or Critical Digital Discourse Studies in the field of linguistics. As such, at the core of this course is the critical study of discourse. Particular focus is placed on how language and other semiotic resources are used, particularly in social and digital media and with the help of AI, to (re)produce power relations and convey ideological convictions in today’s society.

In this seminar, students will learn the basic terminology and main approaches of critical discourse studies with a focus on politics and activism. We will explore how tools from critical discourse analysis can be implemented to make sense of the multimodal discursive practices in politics and activism and to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality, and bias. We will consider language as a social practice and investigate language use as both socially shaped and also socially shaping. We will also focus on the exploration of the positioning and negotiation of categories, such as race, class, and gender, as well as on the role of today’s digital media and AI in shaping and re-producing political discourses.

Bibliography

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Jones, Rodney. H., Chik, Alice, & Hafner, Cristoph. A. (Eds.) (2015). Discourse and Digital Practices: Doing discourse analysis in the digital age. 1st ed. London: Routledge.
Leeuwen, Theo van (2008): Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Wodak, Ruth (2009): Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Wodak, Ruth (2020): The Politics of Fear: The Shameless Normalization of Far-Right Discourse. 2nd ed. London: Sage.
Young, Lynne, and Bridgit Fitzgerald (2017): The Power of Language. How Discourse Influences Society. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.