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ENH4310

Theories of discourse: poststructuralism, feminism and sociolinguistics

Proposed to be offered next in 1998

T Threadgold

12 points
* 2.5 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton

Objectives On successful completion of this subject students should have developed an understanding of contemporary approaches to discourse analysis in linguistics; learned to read and understand a number of alternative approaches; and developed sufficient understanding of critical discourse analysis to use it effectively in a range of contexts.

Synopsis The subject will focus on a variety of approaches to discourse analysis from the perspective of recent critical, literary and feminist theory. This subject will be structured around four major areas. The first includes formal approaches which construe discourse as text. The second covers modes of analysis which have taken discourse to mean conversation. The third will deal with the critical approach to discourse that is typical of the work of continental discourse theorists like Foucault, Bourdieu and de Certeau. The fourth will explore feminist approaches to language, semiotics and discourse (Deborah Cameron, Julia Kristeva, Teresa de Lauretis, and a number of Australian feminists). The subject will ask questions about the possible relations between these approaches and try to develop the resources for critical and politically informed kinds of discourse analysis in a variety of contexts and fields.

Assessment Discourse analysis (2000 words): 30%
* Seminar paper (3000 words): 30%
* Essay (4000 words): 40%
*

Recommended texts

Ang I Living room wars Routledge

Bourdieu B Language and symbolic power Polity Press

Butler J Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity Routledge

Cameron D Feminism and linguistic theory MacMillan

de Certeau M The practice of everyday life California U P

Fairclough N Language and power Longman

Foucault M Language, counter-memory, practice: Selected essays and interviews Oxford

Foucault M Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison Allen Land

Halliday M A K Explorations in the functions of language Arnold

de Lauretis T Alice doesn't: Feminism, semiotics, cinema Indiana U P

Smith D Texts, facts and femininity Routledge


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Authorised by the Academic Registrar December 1996