The Potential of Narrative Strategies in the Discursive Construction of Hegemonic Positions and Social Change
This chapter illustrates ways in which narrative strategies contribute to the construction of hegemonic processes of social change. Narratives have transformational power because they shape new imaginaries about social life, help to legitimate them and create consensus. It is argued that effective hegemony constitutes power over social reality and will be generally accepted as a ‘matter of course’. This chapter is based on a study of the struggle for hegemony between former Mexican President Gortari and the Zapatista movement and integrates a Gramscian view on hegemony with discourse theory (Laclau and Mouffe 1985). The study contributes to the development of discourse theory on hegemony, using the concept of three levels of abstraction, or ‘orders of discourse’, found in Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2001, 2003); and a discourse-historical approach (Reisigl and Wodak 2001). A comparison is made with Eleveld’s study of storylines (this volume) and Filardo Llamas’ text worlds, leading to the presentation of criteria for qualitative research and some ideas for further research.
References (30)
References
Chouliaraki, L. and N. Fairclough. 1999. Discourse in Late Modernity. Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Fairclough, N. 1992. Discourse and Social Change, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fairclough, N. 2001. CDA as a method in social scientific research. In: R. Wodak and M. Meyer (eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Sage, pp. 121–139.
Fairclough, N. 2003. Analysing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.
Fairclough, N. 2006. Language and Globalization. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Foucault, M. 1984 [1982]. The order of discourse. In M. Shapiro (ed.), Language and Politics, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 108–138.
Gramsci, A. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. New York: International Publishers.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd ed. London: Edward Arnold.
Howarth, D. 2000. Discourse. Ballmoor: Open University.
Howarth, D. 2004. Hegemony, subjectivity, democracy. In S. Critchley, O. Marchart, (Eds), Laclau. A Critical Reader. Oxoford: Routledge, pp. 256–276.
Jessop, B. 2002. The Future of the Capitalist State. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Laclau, E. 1990. New Reflections on the Revolution of our Time. London, New York: Verso.
Laclau, E. 1996/2007. Emancipation(s). London: Verso.
Laclau, E 2005. On Populist Reason. London: Verso.
Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe. 1985. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards a Radical Democratic Politics, London: Verso.
Montesano Montessori, N. 2009. A Discursive Analysis of a Struggle for Hegemony in Mexico. The Zapatista Movement versus President Salinas de Gortari. Saarbrücken: VDM.
Montesano Montessori, N. 2011. The design of a theoretical, methodological, analytical framework to analyse hegemony in discourse. Critical Discourse Studies 8(3), pp. 169–182.
Montesano Montessori, N., H. Schuman and R. De Lange. 2012. Kritische Discoursanalyse. De macht en kracht van taal en tekst. Brussels: Academic and Scientific Publishers.
Norval, A.J. 2000. Trajectories of future research in discourse Theory. In D. Howarth, A.J. Norval and Y. Stavrakakis (eds.), Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 219–223.
Olesen, T. 2005. International Zapatismo. The Construction of Solidarity in the Age Of Globalization. London: Zed Books.
Patterson, W. (Ed.). 2002. Strategic Narrative: New perspectives on personal and cultural narratives, Lexington, M. A.: Lexington Books.
Phillips, L., and M.W. Jørgensen, 2002. Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. London: Sage.
Reisigl, M., and R. Wodak. 2001. Discourse and Discrimination. Rhetorics of racism and anti-Semitism. London: Routledge.
Ricoeur, P. 1991. Life in quest of narrative. In D. Wood (Ed.), On Paul Ricoeur: Narrative and Interpretation, London: Routledge, pp. 20–33.
Somers, M.R. 1994. The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach. Theory and Society 23, pp. 605–649.
Titscher, S., M. Meyer, R. Wodak and E. Vetter. 2000. Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis. London: Sage.
Torfing, J. 1999. New Theories on Discourse. Laclau, Mouffe and Žižek. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Van Eemeren, F.H. and R. Grootendorst, 1992. Argumentation, Communication, and Fallacies. A Pragma-Dialectical Perspective. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Werth, P. 1999. Text Worlds: Representing Conceptual Space in Discourse, London: Longman.
Wodak, R., R. de Cillia, M Reisigl, and K. Liebhart. 1999. The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Romano, Manuela & M Dolores Porto
2018.
‘The tide, change, nobody can stop it’: Metaphor for social action.
Discourse & Society 29:6
► pp. 655 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.