Introduction to Discourse Theory
2006 Discourse Theory Summer School: Week 1
| Course Description | Details |
| Presenter Profile | - Date |
| Readings | - Time |
| Prerequisites | - Venue |
| Detailed Course Outline | - Fee |
Course Description
This one-week course covers both the theoretical background of discourse theory as well as its application to concrete empirical research. Its focus is on a variety of argumentative strategies in different fields of research such as rhetoric and political theory. The course objective is to provide a thorough introduction to a theory of discourse from a post-structuralist point of view.
With respect to the theoretical aspects, attention is directed to the origins of structural linguistics and Freudian psychoanalysis as well as their reception in contemporary philosophy and political thought. The course will also refer to the tradition of marxism and its influence in the configuration of the post-marxist political thought of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.
The course will consist of 10 sessions of 105 minutes each. The sessions will be based on presentations by the course facilitator but participants are strongly encouraged to pose questions of clarification in the context of on-going lectures and to discuss their own research work. The course will be limited to a maximum of 30 participants. There may be minor modifications made to the session details prior to the summer school starting.
Presenter Profile
Dr Alejandro Groppo
Universidad Nacional de Villa Maria and Universidad Católica, de Cordoba, Argentina
Alejandro Groppo teaches political theory at the Universidad Nacional de Villa Maria and Universidad Católica, de Cordoba, Argentina. His PhD was on the discourse of Latin American populism. He graduated from Essex University, England where Ernesto Laclau was his supervisor. His research interests are political theory, post-structuralist approaches to politics and rhetoric, and Latin American history.
Course convenor: Peter Kitchenman 00 64 4 463 9488, peter.kitchenman@vuw.ac.nz
Readings
A book of the readings listed below in the Course Outline will be provided to all participants approximately two months before the course begins.
Prerequisites
A willingness to engage with all the readings before the course starts. Though the course is introductory, we draw on analytical and theoretical material from various disciplines at an advanced level. The readings are sometimes dense and challenging. However, every effort is made to present these complex themes with clarity, comprehensiveness, and cogency.
Details
Date
Monday 20 November - Friday 24 November 2006
Time
Monday 10am–12.45pm, 1.45pm–3.45pm
Tuesday to Friday 9am–11am, 12noon–2pm
Venue
CO349, Cotton Building, Level 3, Room 349
Kelburn Campus
Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington
New Zealand
Fee
Private or Government sectors: NZ$894.38 incl GST (12.5%)
Academic and NGO sectors: NZ$444.38 incl GST (12.5%)
Supported and International Students: NZ$281.25 incl GST (12.5%)
Unsupported student: NZ$150 incl GST (12.5%)
Detailed Course Outline
(This may change slightly before publication of course readings)
1. The Epistemology of Discourse Theory: Description, Understanding and Explanation
This first lecture introduces some of the basic and central categories of discourse theory such as ‘articulation’, ‘discourse’, ‘empty signifiers’ and ‘logics of equivalence and difference’ and places them in relationship to positivism, hermeneutics and naturalism as the dominant approaches to social science research.
Howarth, D., & Stavrakakis, Y. (2000). Introducing discourse theory and political analysis. In D. Howarth, A. J. Norval & Y. Stavrakakis (Eds.), Discourse theory and political analysis: Identities, hegemonies, and social change (pp. 1-23). Manchester: Manchester University.
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1987). Post-marxism without apologies. New Left Review, 166, 79-106.
2. Philosophy and Rhetoric in Modernity and its Critics
This session starts with a discussion of the role of rhetoric in Modernity: Descartes, Locke, and Kant as critiques of figurative language. After that we start analysing the nietzschean revolution and the rhetorical turn it introduced, and then look at philosophy and truth as rhetorical logics.
Nietzsche, F. (1964). On truth and falsity in an extramoral sense (M. Mugge, Trans.). In O. Levy (Ed.), The complete works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Vol. 2 (Part 1), pp. 173-192). New York: Russell & Russell. (Original work published 1873)
An excellent historical account on the modern rejection of rhetoric and its contemporary revival is:
Bender, J., & Wellbery, D. E. (1990). Rhetoricality: On the modernist return of rhetoric. In J. Bender & D. E. Wellbery (Eds.), The ends of rhetoric: History, theory, practice (pp. 3-42). Stanford, Ca.,: Stanford University Press. (Interloan).
Bender & Wellbery (1990) is not compulsory reading. However, it is contained in the course book of readings for those who want to do supplementary reading.
3. Discourse Theory: Modern or Postmodern?
This looks at the philosophical underpinnings of discourse theory and in particular the issue of anti-essentialism and politics after modernity. The argument that politics is the ontology of the social is explored in the context of a re-definition of relations of power and representation.
Laclau, E. (1988). Politics and the limits of modernity. In A. Ross (Ed.), Universal abandon? The politics of postmodernism (pp. 63-82). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Laclau, E. (1996). Power and representation. In E. Laclau (Ed.), Emancipation(s) (pp. 84-104). London: Verso. (Original work published 1993)
4. Discourse Theory: Tackling the Influence of Structural Linguistics and Freudian Psychoanalysis
Post-foundational approaches to politics and ideology typically draw on, and arise from, developments in linguistics. This session analyses the legacy of structural linguistics and Freudian psychoanalysis from the construction of symbolic thought. Saussure’s central categories such as sign, arbitrariness and paradigm/syntagm, and Freud’s notions of condensation and displacement are discussed in this session. The case of ‘Orientalism’.
de Saussure, F. (1974[1959]). Course in general linguistics (W. Baskin, Trans.). London: Fontana. (pp. 6-17, 65-78, 101-127).
Freud, S. (1976[1900]). The interpretation of dreams (J. Stracey, Trans.). London: Penguin. (pp. 381-389, 414-419).
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (pp. 201-213).
5. Discourse Theory and Foucault’s Genealogy as Method
This session is devoted to Foucault’s turn to a genealogical approach, under the inspiration of Nietzsche’s genealogy of morals. We also analyse Foucault’s methodology for the study of discourse.
Foucault, M. (1991[1978]). Politics and the study of discourse. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault effect. Studies in governmentality (pp. 53-72). London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Foucault, M. (1984[1977]). Nietzsche, genealogy, history. In P. Rabinow (Ed.), The Foucault reader (pp. 76-100). Hardmondsworth: Penguin.
A good complement is:
Dreyfus, H. L., & Rabinow, P. (1982). Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. Brighton: Harvester. Part 2 (pp.101-207).
Dreyfus & Rabinow (1982) is not compulsory reading, nor is it included in the course book of readings.
6. Discourse Theory and Derrida’s Deconstruction as Method
This session introduces the key characteristics of Derrida’s conception of deconstruction and his idea of ‘iterability’.
Derrida, J. (1978[1967]). Structure, sign and play in the human sciences (A. Bass, Trans.). In J. Derrida (Ed.), Writing and difference (pp. 278-293, 339). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Derrida, J. (1988[1971]). Signature event context. In J. Derrida (Ed.), Limited Inc (pp. 1-23). Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
7. Rhetoric, Moral Argument and the Law
This session discusses the logic of positivism and how the theory of argumentation comes to the fore in legal theory. Debates about making a decision, ethics and the idea of justice are also explored.
Perelman, C. (1963). The idea of justice and the problem of argument. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Laclau, E. (2000). Identity and hegemony: The role of universality in the constitution of political logics. In J. Butler, E. Laclau & S. Zizek (Eds.), Contingency, hegemony, universality: Contemporary dialogues on the left (pp. 44-89). London: Verso.
8. The Marxist Tradition: Luxemburg and Gramsci
The session analyses two important political thinkers within the marxist tradition that anticipate some of the central points that would become the basis for the post-marxism of Laclau and Mouffe.
Luxemburg, R. (1971[1906]). The mass strike, the political party and the trade unions; and, the Junius pamphlet (P. Lavin, Trans.). New York: Harper Torchbooks. Part 1, sections 1 IV (pp. 9-54, 93-94).
Gramsci, A. (1971[1948-51]). Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. Hoare, Q. and Nowell Smith, P. (Eds. & translators). London: Lawrence & Wishart. (pp. 55-84, 173-185, 271-276).
9-10. Theory of Discourse and Politics: Hegemony, Universality and Empty Signifiers
In these last two sessions we will synthesize and rearticulate what we have discussed in terms of the post-structuralist and marxist tradition within the theory of politics of Laclau and Mouffe. The later Laclau has also been preoccupied by the problematic of the relation between the universal and the particular in politics. This problematic will be explored in the context of postmodernity.
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (2001[1985]). Hegemony and socialist strategy. Towards a radical democratic politics (2nd ed.). London: Verso. (Ch.3, i.e. pp. 93-148).
Laclau, E. (1994). Why do empty signifiers matter to politics? In J. Weeks (Ed.), The lesser evil and the greater good: The theory and politics of social diversity (pp. 167-178). London: Rivers Oram Press. Also available in Emancipation(s), op. cit.
Laclau, E. (1992). Universalism, particularism, and the question of identity. October, 61(Summer), 83-90. (Interloan). Also available in Emancipation(s), op. cit.
