[Linganth] Call for papers for a thematic issue on Post-civility and ALT-Conflict to be published in JLAC

[Pilar Garces]

Post-civility and ALT-Conflict

Thematic issue to be published in the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict

Editors

Pilar G. Blitvich

Maria Sifianou


 
The post-truth(Suiter, 2016; Montgomery, 2017) era characterized, among others, byalternative facts and fake news has made it evident to the public at large thatthe definitions of true and false are clearly subject to discursivestruggle. The assumption of truth is, however, fundamental to society.According to Keyes (2004), society would crumble if we assumed others were aslikely to mislead as they were to tell the truth. Keyes warns us that we aredangerously close to that point.  Notonly notions of truth, but notions of what counts as civility as a necessaryfoundation of public discourse (Sellers, 2004) are also under close, societalscrutiny. 

Crucially, truthand in/civility are frequently seen as intertwined. Recently, a fake newswebpage editor argued on a segment of the US program Sixty Minutes that fake news headlines need to be incendiary toincrease their likelihood of being believed (recent examples are articlesaccusing Hilary Clinton of supporting the mutilating and abusing of children,Barbwire, October 8, 2016). It seems that, in an extremely polarized world,information rings truer if it constructs those people or ideologies one dislikesin a negative light, in extremely uncivil terms. It could be argued then thatcivility is one of the casualties of the post-truth era.

The aim of this thematicissue is to delve into the reasons behind the massive turn to conflict/aggression/impolitenessin public (institutional and non-institutional) discourse, to understand why ithas become such a powerful weapon in the hands of so many, and how it relatesto understandings of truth. 

We welcomecontributions exploring, but not restricted to, the following topics:

a)       Is massive conflict/aggression/impolitenessin public discourse a new development or has it always been around? Historicalperspectives.

b)      Discursivestruggle over understandings of public conflict/aggression/ impoliteness/incivility.

c)       The online expansionof conflict/aggression/impoliteness.  

d)      Political/Partisanrhetoric and conflict/aggression/ impoliteness.

e)       Polarization andconflict/aggression/impoliteness.

f)       Fake news and conflict/aggression/impoliteness. Conflict/aggression/ impoliteness and notions of truth.

g)      Public conflict/aggression/impoliteness and its possible merits

h)      Multiplicity ofnews/communication outlets and conflict/aggression/ impoliteness

i)       Impact of highly publicized conflict/aggression/impoliteness.


 
To be considered for inclusion in the thematic issue,please send a circa 400-wordproposal to the editors (jlac-editor at uncc.edu) nolater than February 15, 2018. Onceproposals have been selected, a more detailed publication schedule will beprovided.

 
References



Keyes, R. (2004). The post-truth era: Dishonesty and deception incontemporary life. St. Martin's Press.



Montgomery,M. 2017. Post-truth politics? Authenticity, populism and the electoraldiscourses of Donald Trump. Journal ofLanguage and Politics 16(4), 619–639.



Sellers,M. (2004). Ideals of public discourse. In Sistare, C. T. (Ed.), Civility and its discontents (pp.15–24). Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.


Suiter, J. (2016).Post-truth politics. Political Insight 7(3), 25-27.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/linganth/attachments/20180117/7dc609eb/attachment.htm>