This paper contributes to ongoing discussions on feminism and the analysis of discourse. In particular, I examine Celia Kitzinger’s [(2000), Doing feminist conversation analysis. Feminism and Psychology, 10, 163–193 and (2002) Doing feminist conversation analysis. In P. McIlvenny (Ed.), Talking gender and sexuality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.] claims to be engaged in “feminist conversation analysis.” This paper identifies susceptibilities in her arguments at both the theoretical level and the level of data analysis. My argument is that Kitzinger fails to (...) appreciate the fact that her enterprise is basically a formal analytic one and that as such it is both radically different from, and incommensurate with, ethnomethodology (EM) and conversation analysis (CA). Indeed her attempts to supplement feminism with EM/CA are unnecessary and counterproductive from an EM/CA position insofar as they crucially undermine its integrity. (shrink)

Michel Foucault acknowledged that the Reformation was a pastoral battle and a reorganization of pastoral power. He did not, however, analyze Protestantism much further. This article broadens the scope of critical research on Protestantism, focusing on Lutheranism. Preaching is a fruitful way to overcome overemphasis on confession. In this endeavor I apply Foucault’s concept of “master’s discourse.” I argue that while, in Lutheranism, conversion through comprehensive soul-searching is an individual matter, at the same time it relies on technologies aimed at (...) a collective audience, such as preaching. Since preaching is divine speech, the Lutheran priest wields enormous spiritual power: the preacher is the truth-teller and the subject is required to listen to and internalize the proclaimed truth, instead of confessing their sins. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es hacer un breve análisis al poemario de Octavio Paz llamado ¿Águila o sol? En la primera parte del estudio se analiza el poema de “Trabajos del poeta” En esta sección se revisan el quehacer del poeta en relación con el lenguaje y el mito. Se plantean conceptos iniciales también hacia la sacralidad poética. En la segunda parte del estudio se analiza el poema de “Eralabán” como una propuesta poética que permite pensar al lenguaje como (...) uno sagrado y que ésta es una cualidad de la poesía, Finalmente, la última parte es un análisis de “Mariposa de Obsidiana” y la recuperación del mito prehispánico como eje fundacional que posibilita asumir a la poesía como sacra, ya no solo es el lenguaje como ente creador, sino que éste necesita del mito para convertirse en una totalidad divina. (shrink)

This essay takes a rhetorical pragmatist perspective on current questions concerning educational goals and pedagogical practices. It begins by considering some challenges to rhetorical approaches to education, placing those challenges in the theoretical context of their posing. The essay then describes one current rhetorical approach—based on Kenneth Burke’s dramatism and logology—and uses it to understand and redescribe another rhetorical approach—Jesuit teaching of eloquentia perfecta. Proceeding in this way, the essay presents both a general theoretical framework for discussing educational aims and (...) a specific practical example of how such aims might be achieved. (shrink)

ABSTRACTI compare M.A.K. Halliday’s metafunctional system with Jay Lemke’s for the purposes of doing Critical Discourse Analysis. The differences I foreground turn specifically on notions of context and the distinction that Kenneth Burke makes between scientistic and dramatistic approaches to the analysis of meaning. I use a corpus of political and journalistic texts on ‘austerity’ discourses, and two examples from creative arts research projects, to demonstrate differences in the contextual potentials of the two systems that have implications for critical analysis. (...) The analysis highlights differences in what Burke describes as analytic range and circumference, and differences in directionality between the two systems. Halliday’s metafunctions provide a gateway into deeper and more detailed analysis of language, directing analysis into aspects of the text below the level of the clause. Lemke’s is an action focused, two-way semiotic interface between cultural groups and the meanings they make, whether by means of language alone or by multimodal means, and demands that analysis begin with culture. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses influential approaches to CDA using an ethical lens that employs a synthesis underpinned by Kenneth Burke’s theoretical perspectives on language as action. It argues that CDA is an unavoidably moralistic pursuit with explicit aims of beneficially transforming social and political systems to make them more equal and democratic. The paper briefly addresses well aired criticisms of CDA based on its moralistic core and conclude that they miss the point by having made a Scientistic assessment of a Dramatistic (...) pursuit. I have analysed pieces by Theo van Leeuwen and Ruth Wodak, Norman Fairclough, Ruth Wodak, Teun van Dijk, Jay Lemke, and Isabela and Norman Fairclough. (shrink)

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (TSE) has shaped African Americans’ views of the American health care system, contributing to a reluctance to participate in biomedical research and a suspicion of the medical system. This essay examines public discourses surrounding President Clinton’s attempt to restore African Americans’ trust by apologizing for the TSE. Through a narrative reading, we illustrate the failure of this text as an attempt to reconcile the United States Public Health Service and the African American public. We conclude by (...) noting the limitations of rhetoric when equal prominence is not given to policy proposals in national apologies. (shrink)

Focusing on An Collins, “Eliza,” and Anna Trapnel, this essay considers the interconnections of mind, body, and spirit in the mid-seventeenth century. Given their gender and their era, that the writing of all three serves as a means of expressing religious devotion is not surprising — what may be, however, is the role of illness as both catalyst for and topic of work that is also deeply and consciously rhetorical. Articulating what may be as much illness enabled as it is (...) divinely inspired, their work further suggests a more than merely intuitive sense of language’s capacity to heal body as well as soul. (shrink)