构建女性中心的文学批评话语——伊莱恩·肖瓦尔特的“女性批评学”研究

伊莱恩·肖瓦尔特(Elaine Showalter)于20世纪70年代提出的女性批评学是英美女性文学批评的核心理念,对于确立女性中心的文学批评话语、构建英美女性文学史和塑造女性主体身份具有重要的指导意义。本文主要考察女性批评学的理论内涵和述评国内外对该理论的批评研究,试图在当代语境下对女性批评学作出较为全面客观的评价。     

The Future of British Political History: Concluding Remarks

These concluding remarks reflect, in the light of the preceding articles, on two themes that recur throughout the collection. First, how can historians maintain an effective presence in public debate about politics in Britain? Second, how should political historians position themselves within the discipline, at a time when—it is suggested—political history is losing ground among British academic historians? It is argued here that, in each case, they should reflect on what they can most distinctively contribute, either as historians or as political historians; and that they should frame their interventions accordingly.     

地方官员表态话语及其行为匹配——一个初步研究框架

官员表态话语作为展现政治倾向的方式,是一种常见但被忽略的学术议题。尝试厘清地方官员表态话语体系建构逻辑,并对照其表态话语与行为的匹配性。研究发现,向上表态是单一制国家地方官员权力遵从的必然方向,针对制度弹性的强弱可以选择贯彻执行型、发展协调型、竞争表功型等三种表态形式,地方官员基于成本收益的考量会选择完全匹配、阳奉阴违、部分匹配等不同的行为匹配方式。因此,可以从合理把握公共政策刚性与弹性的度、提升公共政策科学化水平、细化官员表态话语的语义解读、动态掌握官员表态之后的行为轨迹、实现“有责可问”向“有责必问”的转变等方面提升其言行匹配度。     

Political discourse networks and the conflict over software patents in Europe

In 2005, the European Parliament rejected the directive ‘on the patentability of computer‐implemented inventions’, which had been drafted and supported by the European Commission, the Council and well‐organised industrial interests, with an overwhelming majority. In this unusual case, a coalition of opponents of software patents prevailed over a strong industry‐led coalition. In this article, an explanation is developed based on political discourse showing that two stable and distinct discourse coalitions can be identified and measured over time. The apparently weak coalition of software patent opponents shows typical properties of a hegemonic discourse coalition. It presents itself as being more coherent, employs a better‐integrated set of frames and dominates key economic arguments, while the proponents of software patents are not as well‐organised. This configuration of the discourse gave leeway for an alternative course of political action by the European Parliament. The notion of discourse coalitions and related structural features of the discourse are operationalised by drawing on social network analysis. More specifically, discourse network analysis is introduced as a new methodology for the study of policy debates. The approach is capable of measuring empirical discourses both statically and in a longitudinal way, and is compatible with the policy network approach.     

民事诉讼调解制度的未来——回归其本质

诉讼调解是一种传统的解决纠纷方式,它在彻底解决纠纷、维护社会稳定方面发挥着重要的作用,但是随着社会的转型,审判方式的逐渐改革以及人们权利意识的增强,诉讼调解在解决纠纷方面也暴露出了种种弊端,这些弊端已经使调解制度在一定程度上发生了异化,基于此有必要对诉讼调解制度进行完善,使其回归其本质——纠纷解决方式.     

Public Discourse of (De)legitimation: The Case of South Estonian Language

This paper focuses on two different argumentative strategies for dealing with a regional variety of Estonian, one of which may discourage the use of South Estonian in favor of Estonian, while another legitimates the lesser-used regional variety. These argumentative strategies are studied by critical discourse analysis (CDA) of six articles in Estonian language newspapers and magazines published in 2004–2005. The use of South Estonian is discouraged by presenting real or imagined threats that it will undermine Estonian. This discourse also parallels the Estonian-Russian majority-minority discourse of recent years by employing zero-sum arguments of the Estonian language losing to Russian as a consequence of the recognition of South Estonian. Language ideologies, which also construct some varieties worthier than others, re-enforce an essentialist representation of separate languages. This representation will work toward suppressing linguistic variation.     

Power relations? What power relations? The de-politicising conceptualisation of development of the UNDP

The UN′s Sustainable Development Goals agenda points far into 2030, which shows that its post-war development endeavour is not functioning effectively. This article implements a discourse analysis of the UN Development Programme′s (UNDP) Human Development Reports (HDR) and exposes their internal contradictions. This analysis enables a critical reflection on the UNDP′s political position: its reports conceal the political causes of underdevelopment. By concealing the antagonistic/conflictual dimension of social issues – poverty, inequality, and exclusion – the UNDP naturalises the actual neoliberal order. The HDR turns political problems into technical issues; according to this approach, no power relations have to be changed in order to overcome underdevelopment.     

A critical discourse analysis of pavement advertisements of herbal medicine and spiritual healing services in Central Johannesburg

Abstract

This article discusses the language in a range of advertisements for herbal medicines and spiritual healing services, as found in fliers distributed on the pavements of the Johannesburg central business district. The socio-cognitive approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) was employed to analyse the language used. The purpose was to identify the ways in which the producers of the advertisements, through careful choice of discourse, attempt to manipulate potential customers. It was established that the producers purported to have solutions to a broad range of problems affecting society. These included sexual, marital, business-related and social problems, for which the healers claimed to have quick and permanent solutions. Stylistic techniques include the use of juxtaposition, rhetorical questions, hyperbole, punctuation marks, indigenous languages, first-person narratives in testimonies, illustrations and the naming of herbs. The conclusion can be drawn that the advertisements demonstrate a perceived power imbalance between their producers and the target audiences. This may lead certain clients to be deceived by the herbalists and spiritual healers, sometimes with disastrous consequences. It is, however, acknowledged that not everyone in South African society believes all the claims made in these advertisements.