The Discourse Studies Reader

Discourse Studies is an interdisciplinary field studying the social production of meaning across the entire spectrum of the social sciences and humanities. The Discourse Studies Reader brings together 40 key readings from discourse researchers in Europe and North America, some of which are now translated into English for the first time. Divided into seven sections – ‘Theoretical Inspirations: Structuralism versus Pragmatics’, ‘From Structuralism to Poststructuralism’, ‘Enunciative Pragmatics’, ‘Interactionism’, ‘Sociopragmatics’, ‘Historical Knowledge’ and ‘Critical Approaches’ – The Discourse Studies Reader offers a comprehensive overview of the main currents in discourse studies, both discourse theory and discourse analysis. With short introductions elaborating the broader context, the sections present key selections from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds by placing them into their respective epistemological traditions. The Discourse Studies Reader is an indispensable textbook for students and scholars alike who are interested in discourse theoretical questions and working with discourse analytical methods.

Jürgen Spitzmüller, University of Vienna, in Zeitschrift für Diskursforschung Heft 1/2015:
Der vorliegende Reader stellt eine gewichtige und in vielerlei Hinsicht sehr instruktive Sammlung von Texten aus dem heterogenen Forschungsfeld der Diskursforschung dar. Für Leserinnen und Leser, die das Feld noch nicht kennen, bietet er gebündelt eine ganze Reihe grundlegender Texte, die durch die narrative Struktur des Buchs und die begleitenden Texte der HerausgeberInnen auch gleich entsprechend vorsortiert und interpretativ gerahmt sind.