Chapter 3. Religious lexis and political ideology in English Civil War newsbooks
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Elisabetta Cecconi
Abstract
In this article I provide a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of two influential English Civil War newsbooks which dominated the arena of seventeenth-century adversarial journalism: the royalist Mercurius Aulicus and the parliamentarian Mercurius Britanicus. Given the major role played by religion in the outbreak of the Civil War, my paper focuses on religious words and examines their collocational behavior in concordances and larger stretches of discourse. The analysis highlights the discourse strategies adopted by the two editors in order to frame, confirm and legitimate opposite versions of the news events and construe ideological consensus in their readership. In a period of intense experimentation in news rhetoric and political propaganda, this corpus-based investigation documents the development of a strongly factious news style for a growing, politically biased readership.
Abstract
In this article I provide a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of two influential English Civil War newsbooks which dominated the arena of seventeenth-century adversarial journalism: the royalist Mercurius Aulicus and the parliamentarian Mercurius Britanicus. Given the major role played by religion in the outbreak of the Civil War, my paper focuses on religious words and examines their collocational behavior in concordances and larger stretches of discourse. The analysis highlights the discourse strategies adopted by the two editors in order to frame, confirm and legitimate opposite versions of the news events and construe ideological consensus in their readership. In a period of intense experimentation in news rhetoric and political propaganda, this corpus-based investigation documents the development of a strongly factious news style for a growing, politically biased readership.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface 1
- Chapter 1. English news discourse from newsbooks to new media 3
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Part I. Changing or maintaining conventions?
- Chapter 2. Of hopes and plans 15
- Chapter 3. Religious lexis and political ideology in English Civil War newsbooks 39
- Chapter 4. Contemporary observations on the attention value and selling power of English print advertisements (1700–1760) 61
- Chapter 5. A modest proposal in The Gentleman’s Magazine 81
- Chapter 6. Lexical bundles in news discourse 1784–1983 97
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Part II. Widening audiences
- Chapter 7. British popular newspaper traditions 119
- Chapter 8. The Poor Man’s Guardian 137
- Chapter 9. Diffusing political knowledge in illustrated magazines 157
- Chapter 10. From adverts to letters to the editor 175
- Chapter 11. The public identity of Jack the Ripper in late nineteenth-century British newspapers 199
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Part III. New practices
- Chapter 12. Narrative vs. “objective” style 219
- Chapter 13. Astride two worlds 241
- Chapter 14. Newspaper funnies at the dawn of modernity 267
- Index 295
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface 1
- Chapter 1. English news discourse from newsbooks to new media 3
-
Part I. Changing or maintaining conventions?
- Chapter 2. Of hopes and plans 15
- Chapter 3. Religious lexis and political ideology in English Civil War newsbooks 39
- Chapter 4. Contemporary observations on the attention value and selling power of English print advertisements (1700–1760) 61
- Chapter 5. A modest proposal in The Gentleman’s Magazine 81
- Chapter 6. Lexical bundles in news discourse 1784–1983 97
-
Part II. Widening audiences
- Chapter 7. British popular newspaper traditions 119
- Chapter 8. The Poor Man’s Guardian 137
- Chapter 9. Diffusing political knowledge in illustrated magazines 157
- Chapter 10. From adverts to letters to the editor 175
- Chapter 11. The public identity of Jack the Ripper in late nineteenth-century British newspapers 199
-
Part III. New practices
- Chapter 12. Narrative vs. “objective” style 219
- Chapter 13. Astride two worlds 241
- Chapter 14. Newspaper funnies at the dawn of modernity 267
- Index 295
