“Our biggest killer”: multimodal discourse representations of dementia in the British press

A recent (2016) Office for National Statistics report stated that dementia is now “the leading cause of death” in England and Wales. Ever fixated with the syndrome (an unfailingly newsworthy topic), the British press was quick to respond to the bulletin, consistently headlining that dementia was the nation’s “biggest killer,” while (re)formulating other aspects of the report in distorting and emotive metaphorical terms. In this paper we examine how the media, through use of a recurring set of linguistic and visual semiotic tropes, portrayed dementia as an agentive entity, a “killer,” which remorselessly attacks its “victims.” Such a broadly loaded and sensationalist representation, we argue, not only construed dementia as a direful and pernicious disease, but also, crucially, obscured the personal and social contexts in which the syndrome is understood and experienced (not least by people with dementia themselves). This intensely lurid type of representation not only fails to address the ageist misinformation and common misunderstandings that all too commonly surround dementia, but is also likely to exacerbate the stress and depression frequently experienced by people with dementia and their families.     

Apostolic Minds and the Spinning House: Jane Ellen Harrison and Virginia Woolf's Discourse of Alterity

Jane Ellen Harrison (1850–1928) and Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) are two of the most iconic figures in British feminist history whose enduring influence have helped create and sustain a multitude of feminist discourses. Interestingly, both produced their landmark feminist studies in Cambridge when it was, arguably, the most aggressively anti-feminist institution in Britain at that time. Evidence of the kind of institutionalized disciplinary control Cambridge historically exercised on women can be found in the three Committals books (1823–1894) of the Spinning House (1631–1894) in the University archives. So called because the inmates were given wool to spin, the Spinning House was a penitentiary for young girls who were judged to be compromising the morals of the undergraduates. The Spinning House had its basis in the legal authority of the University which declared ‘That the University by virtue of their Charter sanctioned by Act of Parliament, have an undoubted right to cause the Public Street to be inspected, and loose and disorderly women to be taken up and sent to the Spinning House or the house of correction’. Against the background of the culture encapsulated by the Spinning House, women academics, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, were making tremendous efforts to bring about intellectual equality. And though the two—the spinner and the woman student—occupied mutually exclusive spaces, they were nevertheless held on the margins of the power structure that produced both. This paper examines the socio-historical context and the puritan intellectual politics of Cambridge against which feminist theories of Harrison and Woolf were produced to identify some of the methods with which they negotiated masculine orthodoxy and structured their feminist discourse of alterity.     

我国近30年“依法治税”的理论言说——基于法律话语的分析

改革开放30年以来,"依法治税"在我国税法学以及税收实务界获得了广泛认同。通过法律话语分析可知,"依法治税"是上世纪80年代后期以来在我国形成的独特话语现象,其理论言说的话语主体为政府官员,其言说的内容是使用法律(包括政策)"治"理税收。这样一种自上而下加以推行的"依法治税"模式在改革开放之初具有一定的进步性,但是随着"税收法治"的发展,"依法治税"理论言说开始式微,并且成为阻碍进一步推动税收法治的话语障碍。     

鲸的死亡:假肢社会的审美批判

布迪厄质疑“谁是话语的主体?”即使拿媒介曾经具有的无比灵动的审美知觉来进行辩护也无济于事,主体已经消失在媒介话语的地平线上。媒介是人的延伸,但延伸的是假肢,在媒介化生存的大背景下,主体已经被媒介话语运动场中的主体所替代,主体不再审美,带着媒体假肢冒充上帝。     

离婚案件审理中法官话语的性别偏向

运用听审记录和访谈资料进行的话语分析,向我们展示了离婚案件审理中法官话语的男性偏向,其深层次原因包括:照顾弱者政策的执行受到女性形象转变的冲击、中国日趋格式化的司法体系缺乏对性别意识和女性话语的关注,以及法官话语性别议题背后的权力配置。通过对这些因素的揭示与分析,希望促进人们对司法领域中失语群体的关注,从而有助于构建更为完善合理的司法体系。     

文化共生与和谐文化论略

文化花生具有特定的规则描述和形态表现。文化共生是实现和谐文化的基础条件，和谐文化则是文化共生的发展指向。     

话语创新与思维创新--我国落后地区全面建设小康社会的"话语"分析

全面建设小康社会战略目标的提出为经济文化相对落后的地区提供了极为宝贵的发展机遇,除具有重大的政治、经济意义外,不可低估它所产生的"话语"价值及思维创新意蕴。创新内在地包含了话语创新,而只有实现了话语创新,才能使发展的理性认识融入人们现实的实践,发挥"话语""以言行事"的功能。     

后现代法学思潮的哲理渊源探析

通过运用法学与哲学交叉研究的方法,探究后现代主义代表人物福柯、利奥塔、德里达和罗蒂等学者的法哲学思想及其对法学研究的深刻影响,以揭示后现代法学思潮得以孕育和发展的哲理渊源.藉此,加深对这一新兴法学思潮的认识.     

试论"故事"与"话语"关系的两个层面

结构主义叙事学家提出"故事"与"话语"的区分,主张故事独立于话语.解构主义叙事学家反对"故事"与"话语"的区分,主张话语力量创造故事.结构主义叙事学是在存在物的意义上使用"故事"与"话语",而解构主义叙事学是在存在的意义上来使用"故事"与"话语".这是"故事"与"话语"关系的两个层面,可以在理论与实践上实现对话与沟通.     

法庭调解语言中的修辞技艺探析——以亚里士多德的古典修辞学思想为线索

亚里士多德的古典修辞学理论认为,修辞是一种在每一事例上发现可行的说服方式的能力,其功能不在于说服,而在于发现存在于每一事例中的说服方式。他认为凭借修辞方法和说话人的努力可以达成的说服论证包括三种:运用说话人的品格(ethos)、激发听众的某种情感(pathos)和运用逻辑论证(logos)。亚里士多德这些技术性的说服修辞技巧以及他关于法庭(司法)演说、议事(或政治)演说和展示性(夸耀性)演说的分类,均可创造性地应用于法庭调解实践当中,具有重要的方法论意义。