Critical discourse analysis

1. CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Discourse analysis and Critical
discourse analysis

2. Discourse Analysis
• Foucault (1972) “describes discourses as ways of
talking about the world which are tightly
connected to ways of seeing and
comprehending it.”
Denotative Connotative
(Descriptive) (Interpretative)
Conversation Critical Discourse
Content analysis Analysis

3. Critical Discourse Analysis
LANGUAGE
Affirming Reproducing
Perspectives Values Ways of Talking
Powerful
Less powerful
v
v
O’Halloran (2011)

4. Critical Discourse Analysis
• Their ultimate goal is not only scientific, but
also social and political, namely change. In
that case, social discourse analysis takes the
form of a critical discourse analysis. (van Dijk
1997: 22–3)

5. Critical Discourse Analysis
• O’Halloran (2011) “In explanation, CDA
critically explains connections between texts
and discourse(s) 2 circulating in the wider
social and cultural context, the ‘sociocultural
practice’.” (p. 447).
• Fairclough (1992)“[…] is also shaped by other
social practices and structures.”(p. 65)

6. Dimensions of discourse
Text
Process of production
Process of interpretation
Discourse 1
Discourse practice
Discourse 2
Sociocultural practice
(Situational; institutional; societal)
Description (Text analysis)
Interpretation (Processing
analysis)
Explanation (Sociocultural
analysis)
Fairclough (1995a: 98)

7. Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271–80)
summarize the main tenets of CDA as
follows:
1. CDA addresses social problems
2. Power relations are discursive
3. Discourse constitutes society and culture

8. Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271–80)
4. Discourse is historical
5. The link between text and society is mediated
6. Discourse analysis is interpretative and
explanatory
7. Discourse is a form of social action.

9. ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
• Language-as-discourse is both
• a form of action (cf. Austin 1962) through
which people can change the world
• and a form of action which is socially and
historically situated and in a dialectical
relationship with other aspects of the social.

10. SOCIOPOLITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
• Relations between discourse, power,
dominance, social inequality and the position
in the discourse analyst in such social
relationships.

11. CDA
“is a type of discourse analytical research that
primarily studies the way social power abuse,
dominance, and inequality are enacted,
reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the
social and political context.” Van Dijk (2001)
• Social inequality
• Reproduction of discourse
• Power/dominance

12. • Self reflection is evident in the interpretation
of different discourses
CDA is “discourse analysis with an attitude” (van
Dijk, 2001:96)

13. PRINCIPLES AND AIMS OF CDA
Van Dijk (2001)
• Understanding and comprehension of social
issues
• Analysis of the complex relationships between
dominance and discourse
• Critical targets: power elites
• Analyses of fundamental causes, conditions
and consequences of social issues
• Relationships between text, talk, social
cognition, power, society and culture

14. Class Activity
• Look at the images and answer the question
What relation do you find between the images
and the reading about CDA?
• Analyze the images following the dimensions
of discourse by Fairclough.

17. Class Activity
• Read the following statement
Jørgensen & Phillips (2002)“Critical discourse
analysis is ‘critical’ in the sense that it aims to
reveal the role of discursive practice in the
maintenance of the social world, including
those social relations that involve unequal
relations of power”. (p. 63 )

18. Class Activity
• Identify:
How CDA contributes to the construction of:
• Social identities
• Social relations and
• Systems of knowledge and meaning