Conspiracy Theory Discourses

Conspiracy Theory Discourses addresses a crucial phenomenon in the current political and communicative context: conspiracy theories. The social impact of conspiracy theories is wide-ranging and their influence on the political life of many nations is increasing. Conspiracy Theory Discourses bridges an important gap by bringing discourse-based insights to existing knowledge about conspiracy theories, which has so far developed in research areas other than Linguistics and Discourse Studies. The chapters in this volume call attention to conspiracist discourses as deeply ingrained ways to interpret reality and construct social identities. They are based on multiple, partly overlapping analytical frameworks, including Critical Discourse Analysis, rhetoric, metaphor studies, multimodality, and corpus-based, quali-quantitative approaches. These approaches are an entry point to further explore the environments which enable the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the paramount role of discourse in furthering conspiracist interpretations of reality.

Richard J. Whitt, The University of Nottingham, in Critical Discourse Studies (February 2023):
This volume provides a necessary and timely intervention into CDS, as it tackles a disturbing trend that has gained prominence in political discourse over the last ten years and yet remained understudied by linguists. Another strength of the volume is that it is not restricted to English-language data; studies on French, Chinese, Spanish, Macedonian, Hungarian and Portuguese feature here as well, and this provides us a more global understanding of the current state of affairs rather than being restricted to Anglophone nations. Contributors also express a remarkable degree of understanding towards followers of conspiracy theories, which often arise in times of great social and political turbulence; Fiammenghi’s plea to scholars to avoid alienating such followers should be heeded by all. [...] This volume provides an excellent state-of-the-art into how critical discourse theorists can approach the present-day spectre of conspiracy theories.