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Chapter 2 Discourse and ideology in French thought until Foucault and Pêcheux

  • Simo K. Määttä
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Mapping Ideology in Discourse Studies
This chapter is in the book Mapping Ideology in Discourse Studies

Abstract

Since many, if not most, of the early sources of critical approaches to discourse and ideology come from France, the parallel and sometimes divergent development of these concepts may help to explain some of the contradictions present in today’s theorizations and applications. This chapter provides a succinct account of the etymology, history, and evolution of the concepts from their first usage until the early years of French discourse analysis in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The focus rests on the similarities, overlaps, and coincidences in the theorizations of some of the most important thinkers for the critical study of discourse, particularly Michel Foucault and Michel Pecheux. The goal is to explain how the theory of discourse and ideology is contingent upon the political and intellectual context and the relations between theorizations coming from different sources. The chapter concludes by arguing that the divergence of later approaches and the frequent difficulty of integrating discourse and ideology are due to different factors. These include the polysemy and diverse historical usages of the word discours in French and other languages and the fact that Foucault’s concept of discourse is a hybrid configuration integrating several contemporary ideas, including Althusserian considerations of ideology.

Abstract

Since many, if not most, of the early sources of critical approaches to discourse and ideology come from France, the parallel and sometimes divergent development of these concepts may help to explain some of the contradictions present in today’s theorizations and applications. This chapter provides a succinct account of the etymology, history, and evolution of the concepts from their first usage until the early years of French discourse analysis in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The focus rests on the similarities, overlaps, and coincidences in the theorizations of some of the most important thinkers for the critical study of discourse, particularly Michel Foucault and Michel Pecheux. The goal is to explain how the theory of discourse and ideology is contingent upon the political and intellectual context and the relations between theorizations coming from different sources. The chapter concludes by arguing that the divergence of later approaches and the frequent difficulty of integrating discourse and ideology are due to different factors. These include the polysemy and diverse historical usages of the word discours in French and other languages and the fact that Foucault’s concept of discourse is a hybrid configuration integrating several contemporary ideas, including Althusserian considerations of ideology.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Chapter 1 Introduction 1
  4. Chapter 2 Discourse and ideology in French thought until Foucault and Pêcheux 21
  5. Chapter 3 Teaching French in Acadia: From a discourse of linguistic diversity to a standard ideology 45
  6. Chapter 4 Ideology and emancipation through the prism of performativity: Immolation and mottos of struggle as moments of popular counter-discourse 67
  7. Chapter 5 Language trouble.s 87
  8. Chapter 6 The ideological grounding of the new normal: Anti-discourse meets utopia 103
  9. Chapter 7 Hiding in plain sight: Methodological ideologies in discourse research in applied linguistics 117
  10. Chapter 8 Ideology in cognition and discourse 137
  11. Chapter 9 Licensing through English 157
  12. Chapter 10 Language ideologies and the translation of scholarly texts 179
  13. Chapter 11 Negotiating ideologies and the moral order in child protection social work 201
  14. Chapter 12 Challenging ideologies and fostering intercultural competence: The discourses of healthcare staff about linguistic and cultural barriers, interpreters, and mediators 223
  15. Chapter 13 Taking a corpus-based approach to investigating discourse and ideology in the language sciences 247
  16. Chapter 14 Afterword 273
  17. Index 285
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501513602-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Chapter 1 Introduction 1
  4. Chapter 2 Discourse and ideology in French thought until Foucault and Pêcheux 21
  5. Chapter 3 Teaching French in Acadia: From a discourse of linguistic diversity to a standard ideology 45
  6. Chapter 4 Ideology and emancipation through the prism of performativity: Immolation and mottos of struggle as moments of popular counter-discourse 67
  7. Chapter 5 Language trouble.s 87
  8. Chapter 6 The ideological grounding of the new normal: Anti-discourse meets utopia 103
  9. Chapter 7 Hiding in plain sight: Methodological ideologies in discourse research in applied linguistics 117
  10. Chapter 8 Ideology in cognition and discourse 137
  11. Chapter 9 Licensing through English 157
  12. Chapter 10 Language ideologies and the translation of scholarly texts 179
  13. Chapter 11 Negotiating ideologies and the moral order in child protection social work 201
  14. Chapter 12 Challenging ideologies and fostering intercultural competence: The discourses of healthcare staff about linguistic and cultural barriers, interpreters, and mediators 223
  15. Chapter 13 Taking a corpus-based approach to investigating discourse and ideology in the language sciences 247
  16. Chapter 14 Afterword 273
  17. Index 285
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