福柯的"作者-功能"说及其理论基础

在巴特喊出“作者死了”之后不久，福柯就提出了“作者一功能”理论，深入推进了对作者问题的研究。与巴特等人论述“作者死亡”不同的是，“作者一功能”说的理论基础是福柯的考古学方法，它与福柯对主体进行的批判紧密相连，它是福柯主体批判的一部分，或者更确切点说，它是后者的一个具体化、一个例证。福柯的“作者一功能”理论对当今的文学和文学理论研究具有深刻启示。     

Tammsaare’s Constructions of Femininity in Light of Weininger’s Concept of Sex Difference

The texts of Estonian literary classic A. H. Tammsaare (1878–1940) can be read as mediating contradictory fin de siècle discourses of modernity. The emergence of these discourses was the effect of an accelerated process of socioeconomic modernization. This article analyzes constructions of femininity in Tammsaare’s literary texts through his women protagonists. The construction of these protagonists can meaningfully be traced to the increasingly insistent presence of women in the public sphere throughout Europe and in Estonia at the period of fin de siècle. Although Tammsaare’s texts speak by means of feminist discourses, his constructions of femininity lean toward the negative, misogynistic pole of these reactions to emancipated and “new” women. His analysis of womanhood often refers to the misogynist theory of gender in Otto Weininger’s popular treatise Geschlecht und Charakter. Eine prinzipielle Untersuchung (Sex and Character. An Investigation of Fundamental Principles), which came out 1903.     

The Polonium trail to Islam: Litvinenko,liminality, and television's (cold) war on terror

This article examines how Aleksandr Litvinenko's death links the ‘war on terror’ with an emergent New Cold War. Based on an analysis of BBC and Russian Channel 1 news bulletins, it highlights the centrality of the post-imperial legacy of the two sides in the dispute to the manner of its unfolding, and to how war on terror discourse reconstructs national identities and international antagonisms. It draws on narratology to account for Litvinenko's liminal position inside and outside Islam (his deathbed conversion), the Russian security apparatus (his prior conversion from Cold War spy to noble dissident), and the UK (his ‘good asylum seeker’ status).     

Culture,integration and African Renaissance

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of language in negotiating power between Sudanese Arabists and Sudanese Africanists from a critical discourse analysis perspective (henceforth CDA). The aim is to demonstrate how extreme political discourse can jeopardise national unity. The article begins by summarising the basic tenets of the CDA theory and proceeds to examine Sudanese power-related discourse. Particularly, the article assumes both top-down and bottom-up approaches to analyse the discourses corresponding to the two groups, Sudanese Arabists and Sudanese Africanists. The top-down approach examines the discourse of the ruling Arab elites who have exclusive access to institutional discourse and communication. By contrast, although the Sudanese Africanist discourse was once considered illegal and could not be conveyed through public channels, in more modern times it has found the Internet, television and radio (among others) as avenues for dissemination. A number of socio-political groups, generally referred to as marginalised affiliations, are now initiating resistance discourse (henceforth RD) which goes hand in hand with their armed struggle against the ruling elites.     

The birth of corruption and the politics of anti-corruption in Albania, 1991–2005

This paper analyzes the transformation of the signifier “corruption” in the Albanian public sphere during the period 1991–2005 from a discourse analysis approach. The aim is not to trace corruption in its presence and consequences, but to show how different articulations of corruption supported different agendas. More specifically, this paper aims to show how the corruption discourse that dominated Albanian public discussion during the period 1998–2005 served to legitimize a neoliberal order by articulating corruption as inherent to the public sector and to state intervention in the economy. This meant that corruption could be eliminated through neoliberal policies such as privatization and deregulation. Through a discourse analysis of corruption it is possible to politicize the concept of corruption instead of reducing it to a static and inherent feature of Albanian culture and society.     

E–governance and e-publicanism: preliminary perspectives on the role of the Internet in South African democratic processes

Abstract

The idea of peace has gained a hegemonic place in the discourse of intellectuals and the mass media. From being a preoccupation of religious and utopian sages throughout history, a vision of a peaceful world emerged as a fashionable occupation for peace activism in the 1960s and ultimately in the 21^st century peace research has become a fast-growing industry. The assumed need to end wars and violence and to enforce peaceful existence on individuals, groups, societies and the entire world has been unquestionably accepted as if a self evident truth. By accepting such dubious claims many scholars have consciously and unconsciously distorted historical data in order to produce an image of an ideal peaceful world. Yet increasingly the belief in the ability to abolish war and eliminate conflict is being questioned and conflict prevention is seen as unrealistic, undesirable and based on misguided assumptions. Thus, if achieving peace is counterproductive what are the motives, aims and consequences of peace enforcement? This article begins a critical interrogation of the idea of peace and peace discourse and the formative value of war as human reality. The article uncovers the genealogy of peace, evaluates the relationships between peace and war and exposes the deceptive strategies and tactics of peace discourse as it manipulates language and the mass media. The article concludes that the consequences of enforcing peace do not produce a beautiful society but a nightmare where war is seen once again as a blessing.     

A critical discourse analysis of 2008 advertising campaigns against software piracy in South Africa

Abstract

This article examines the discursive landscape of anti-piracy campaigns run by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) on behalf of major global software companies. Using semiotic techniques, rhetorical analysis and critical discourse analysis, the article demonstrates the primacy of new capitalism in reinforcing the public understanding of global knowledge economy. But the BSA's strategies and tactics are also found to offer mixed discursive messages, possibly attenuating a major objective of any communication campaign: social behaviour change.     

When development means political maturation: adolescents as miniature communists in post-war and pre-reform Vietnam, 1975–1986

In this study, I documented the conceptualization and representation of adolescence in Vietnam between the end of the Vietnam War and before Vietnam adopted the Western market economy. Using historical archives, especially newspapers written for and by adolescents, I argued that during this period, the Vietnamese society conceptualized life course development as a process through which an individual gains political maturity, which means the learning and practicing of communist doctrines. As such, adolescence was viewed between 1975 and 1986 as a political stage that prepares youths to become mature communists. Adolescents, therefore, were portrayed as miniature communists with norms, attitudes and behaviors shaped by communist doctrines. Adolescence was not associated with problem behavior or sexual maturation.     

A cultural political economy of crisis recovery: (trans-)national imaginaries of ‘BRIC’ and subaltern groups in China

Abstract

This paper explores crisis recovery from a cultural political economy (CPE) perspective. It examines the role of (trans-)national forces in constructing BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as drivers for recovery. First, it comments on some ‘cultural economy’ studies and indicates the value of a CPE approach. Second, it examines the ‘BRIC’ as a symbolic condensation of ‘hope’ knowledge and shows how this signifier evolved in three overlapping moments referring to its role as investor, consumer and lender. Third, it considers the material basis of the appeal of BRIC discourses, especially the credibility acquired through BRIC stimulus packages in the global financial crisis. Fourth, it indicates how China's ‘gold standard’ stimulus package has intensified some deep-rooted political tensions and harmed subaltern groups. Finally, it reflects on how CPE can contribute to studies of crisis and recovery.     

Intersemiotic Texture: analyzing cohesive devices between language and images

Recent research on multimodal discourse has explored the nature of semantic relations between different semiotic resources. Drawing on the interpretation of language as a social semiotic resource, this article proposes Intersemiotic Texture as the crucial property of coherent multimodal texts and presents a preliminary framework for cohesive devices between language and images. The framework is illustrated through examination of print media to demonstrate how the image–text relations are meta-functionally orchestrated across experiential, textual and logical meanings at the discourse stratum. A discourse-based model is suggested to analyze image–text logical relations complementary to existing grammar-based approaches. This research also develops a meta-language to describe Intersemiotic Cohesive Devices from two complementary perspectives: Intersemiotic Cohesion not only functions to integrate different modes together when multimodal discourse is conceptualized as a finished product, it also constitutes essential text-forming resources for semantic expansions across language and images during the ongoing contextualization of meanings in real time.