S522 Lecture 9

March 30Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

Foucault“A group of statements which provide a language for talking about - a way of representing the knowledge about - a particular topic at a particular historical moment….Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language”

Foucault

• Episteme• Discourse formation• Regime of truth• Discourse elements

Episteme

‘Discourse characteristics of the way of thinking or state of knowledge at any one time… across a range of texts, and as forms of conduct, at a number of different institutional sites within society.’

Discourse formation

‘When these are brought to bear on an object or to support a strategy, institution etc’i.e. Discourse constructs the topic

Regime of truth

Things may become ‘true’ or have particular consequences, whether they are objectively ‘true’ or not

Example of belief that single parenthood causes delinquency

Discourse elements:‘Discourses, institutions, architectural arrangements, regulations, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements,philosophical propositions, morality, philanthropy, etc’

Feminisms; new discourses

• Power• Discovery• Invention

Hollway - discourses of heterosexual relations

• Male sex drive• Have/hold• Permissive

• Discourses make available positions for subjects to take up

• Traditional sexuality discourses are not equally available to each sex

• Practices in relation to each other are rendered meaningful according to gender-differentiated discourses

• Practices and meanings have histories• Why and how do men and women choose

their discourse?• Positions offered by discourses are socially

constituted and constitutive of subjectivity

Willig: six steps in discourse analysis

• Discursive constructions• Discourses• Action orientation• Positionings• Practice• Subjectivity

Discursive constructions

What is the discursive object being constructed?

What are its characteristics as expressed in the text?

Discourses

Different ways that the object is being constructed. Example: in the piece on relationships, the contrast between an ‘economic discourse’ and a ‘romantic discourse’And Hollway’s 3 discourses of male sexuality

Action orientation

What are the implications for the speaker?How do they serve the speaker’s discursive goals - positioning, blaming etc [This slides into DAM]

Positionings

What are the positioning implications of the discourse(s)?Who is the agent?Who is blameworthy?Who is powerful?

Practice

What are the implications of the discourse(s) for future action on the part of participants including the speaker?What options and are not available?What is, and what is not, obligated by them?

SubjectivityWe cannot infer internal states from discourses but we can infer what is AVAILABLE for subjective experience within the discourses

Martin: Egg and Sperm

• ‘Passive’ egg: ‘active’ sperm• ‘Passive’ egg’: less active sperm• ‘Active’ egg: sperm as ‘victim’• ‘Partnership’ between egg and sperm;

feedback loop model of relations.

Gender resistance

• Wife• Waif• Whore• Witch

•Warrior•Whizzkid•Worthy•Warlock