Specters of Wal-Mart: A critical discourse analysis of stories of Sam Walton's ghost

Abstract

We content analyze the text of Wal-Mart annual reports (1972–2006), both for what is said and in antenarrative fashion what is left out. We find that the specter of Samuel Walton, dead since 1992, dwells in stories told. We intend a critical discourse analysis of the narrative ways in which Wal-Mart translates and crystallizes its version of hyperglobalization by rearticulating its dead leader. Our analysis uses the three-step specter arrival described by Derrida. We also investigate the Weberian routinization of Mr. Sam's charisma, and examine the specter's Bakhtinian double narration. Our thesis: Specters are re-narrated and theatrically enacted by restorying dead leaders. The specter of Sam Walton is employed to answer concerns about Wal-Mart raised by activists. At the same time, the activists also re-present Mr. Sam, claiming: ‘Mr. Sam is rolling over in his grave at what his successors have done, in his name.’ In sum, we explore what Derrida calls a hauntology of the world's largest corporation. Corporate narratives of the dead leader are invoked and masquerade as polyphonic story by both those for and those against Wal-Mart's hyperglobalization effects.