post-structuralism; current interest in large corpora and CDA

[Linnea Micciulla]

Hi Cicero,

Welcome to the list!  I was actually waiting for someone more 
knowledgeable than I about post-structuralism to reply to your question, 
so I was glad that John did.  :)  

What other areas of CDA are you interested in?  I have been looking at 
the representation of Muslims in U.S. print media, focusing on the years 
prior to 2001, and exploring methods of macro-analysis across large 
corpora.   I'm quite interested in some of the criticism of "bias" in 
CDA: while I agree that all research is biased (in that researchers 
always approach their area of study with an agenda), I think it would be 
useful to develop approaches to CDA that balance micro- and 
macro-analysis, so that when analyses are made about selected portions 
of a text, statistics can also be provided about the prevalence of 
patterns on a larger scale. 

I would be delighted to hear any suggestions people have about using 
large corpora for CDA.

Linnea


 
John E Richardson wrote:

>dear Cícero,
>
>glad to be of some help. I imagine that others would also post a reply
>at any other time of the year - a lot of people are on their hols at the
>moment.
>
>all the best
>
>john
>
>
>  
>
>>dear John, 
>>
>>Thanks for your answer. It surely helped. I would be also glad  to get
>>more comments from people all around who participate in this list.
>>
>>Cícero
>>
>>2005/8/11, John E Richardson <johnerichardson at cds-web.net>:
>>    
>>
>>>Dear Cícero,
>>>
>>>apologies for the delay in replying; I've been on holiday.
>>>Post/Structuralism is not really my area of expertise, but I just
>>>thought that I'd throw my hat into the ring; perhaps something I write
>>>will be of some use.
>>>
>>>My understanding is that authors labelled post-structuralist (and I say
>>>'labelled' because they universally did not call themselves this) are
>>>authors who previously wrote within the structualist paradigm.
>>>Structuralism, as I understand it, examines social phenomena in relation
>>>to an invariant structure through which meaning is produced.
>>>Linguistically, of course, this is epitomised by the work of de Saussure
>>>and his synchronic analysis of the internal constitution of signs. This
>>>was then developed by Levi-Strauss who used the langue/parole
>>>distinction to argue that such structures form a "deep grammar" of
>>>      
>>>
>society.
>  
>
>>>During the sixties, this started to be re-evaluated, given that many
>>>authors recognised that it encourages ahistoricism and bourgeois social
>>>theory (specifically of social continuity and the denial of the
>>>possibility of change). History was injected into the mix, and it is
>>>(generally speaking) the notion of historic or temporal analysis that
>>>distinguishes the post-structuralist from the structuralist. That is,
>>>the analysis of how structures both endure and change. In linguistics,
>>>this is the distinction between the diachronic and the synchronic:
>>>post-structuralists argue that structural analysis was generally
>>>synchronic and thereby suppressed historical or diachronic analyses.
>>>Foucault, of course, developed his diachronic analysis using two
>>>methods: genealogy (the study of historic continuities) and archaeology
>>>(the study of historic dead-ends).
>>>
>>>So, given this, of the list you provide, only Foucault could be
>>>classified as p-s, because he started as a structuralist. The other
>>>three are concerned with issues of structure and agency (a similar
>>>dialectic as diachronic and the synchronic analysis) as approached
>>>through Marxist social theory. Bakhtin I am least sure of, though my
>>>understanding is that he is considered a humanist Marxist; Bourdieu has
>>>also been called a 'post-Marxist' (just to complicate things further!).
>>>
>>>Hope some of this helps.
>>>
>>>Best
>>>
>>>John
>>>
>>>Dear colleagues,
>>>
>>>I am now joining this list and I would like to start by asking a
>>>question. Are these authors:Fairclough, Foucault, Bourdieu and
>>>Bakhtin, poststructuralists? Could you please write a few words
>>>explaining about it? I would be glad to be answered. Thank you,
>>>
>>>Cícero Barbosa
>>>
>>>John E Richardson
>>>Dept of Journalism Studies
>>>Sheffield University
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>    
>>
>
>John E Richardson
>Dept of Journalism Studies
>Sheffield University
>
>  
>