Critical discourse studies and hegemony – A gramscian approach
Conference paper
Castaldi, J. 2018. Critical discourse studies and hegemony – A gramscian approach.
Authors | Castaldi, J. |
---|---|
Type | Conference paper |
Description | The concept of hegemony has often been called upon in the Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) literature, but primarily with the view that any discourse that attempts to represent dominant ideologies as natural or commonsensical is hegemonical (Machin and Mayr 2012: 24; Wodak and Meyer, 2016: 9). In order to gain a clearer understanding of the concept of hegemony and to make it methodologically and theoretically applicable to the CDS enterprise, this paper looks at Gramsci’s conceptualization of hegemony and investigates two key aspects: the purpose of hegemonic discourse and how this is produced or reproduced. Firstly, it is argued that hegemony, as a socio-political concept, is neither negative nor positive. Secondly, it is suggested that discourses, from a Gramscian perspective, can only be categorised as hegemonic if they are produced by the civil, rather than political, society. Thirdly, while acknowledging the importance of analysing political discourses and genres, it is proposed that the analysis of mass mediated popular genres should be prioritised in order to understand how contemporary hegemony works. Such an approach, for instance, may provide an argument against one of the criticisms raised by Chilton (2005: 27), namely that humans possess what has been called Machiavellian intelligence and should therefore be able, at least in principle, to recognise the tactical deception which is at the basis of mind manipulation. It is suggested that what hegemonic discourse does is to come in forms (e.g. genres) that would not necessarily alert the counter-deception mechanisms due to being perceived as non-threatening by the receivers. |
Keywords | CDS; Hegemony; Gramsci; Popular genres; Mass media |
Year | 2018 |
Conference | Pragmatics, Discourse, and Society |
Official URL | https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/pradisco/programme/ |
File | File Access Level Open |
References | Bates, T.R., 1975. Gramsci and the Theory of Hegemony. Journal of the History of Ideas, 36(2), pp. |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 23 Sep 2020 |
https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/8w50z/critical-discourse-studies-and-hegemony-a-gramscian-approach
Download files
2567
total views490
total downloads10
views this month2
downloads this month