NEW BOOK: The 'War on Terror' Narrative

[Adam Hodges]

I'm pleased to announce my new book in the Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics:

The War on Terror Narrative: Discourse and Intertextuality in the
Construction and Contestation of Sociopolitical Reality
Adam Hodges

Oxford University Press
Paperback, 192 pages
ISBN13: 9780199759583
ISBN10: 0199759588
Price: $39.95

The War on Terror Narrative analyzes three types of data--presidential
speeches, U.S. media discourse, and focus group interviews--to provide
a longitudinal and holistic study of the formation, circulation, and
contestation of the Bush administration's narrative about the "war on
terror." The narrative sustains, in Foucault's terms, a "regime of
truth" by placing boundaries around what can meaningfully be said and
understood about the subject. Adam Hodges illustrates that even as
social actors resist the narrative and the policy it entails, they
appropriate its language to be heard and understood. While this often
works to strengthen the narrative, discourse is inevitably reshaped as
it enters into new contexts. This recontextualization allows for the
introduction of new meanings, and therein lies the potential for
resistance and social transformation. Hodges argues that applying
ideas on intertextuality to the analysis of political discourse is
central to understanding the way micro-level discursive action
contributes to macro-level cultural narratives like the Bush "War on
Terror" narrative.

More information:
http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Linguistics/SociolinguisticsAnthropologicalL/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5OTc1OTU4Mw==