Discursive Statements Research Articles

Guiding the Pious Self: Morality and Affect in Muslim Instructional YouTube Videos

Abstract Based on a discourse analysis of German-language YouTube videos that attempt to instruct their audiences in Islamic practice, the article examines the interplay of moral statements and audiovisual elements in religious web videos. YouTube constitutes an affective space for the promotion of normative Islamic models of gendered subjectivity that instruct how to understand and guide oneself. Considering the tensions in the lives of young Muslims in the German context, the videos offer clear notions of gendered Muslim morality within an arrangement of discursive and affective elements that draw on both Islamic oratory and elements of secular popular culture. On a linguistic level, producers address their audiences as immoral subjects alienated from a divine order and call for a self-transformation towards piety. At the audiovisual level, discursive statements are entangled with a fluctuating stream of affective intensities that have the potential to charge moral codes with aesthetic legitimacy and attach viewers to gender norms.

The collective-man of res publica. Norwid and the civic society

The intellectually and politically tempestuous crystallization of the civic ideal in the nineteenth and twentieth century manifested not only in Europe (especially Western), but also in North and Middle America, and in time – all over the globe. An intense search for the “civic ideal” is clearly discernible in societies comprising the former Polish Republic, whose demise towards the end of the eighteenth century and the subsequent phases of its increasingdecompositionnot only failed to annihilate the republican tradition but in fact intensified authentic debate on possible roads toward modern society in the future independent state. A key role in this important dialogue was played by representatives of the landed gentry and the intelligentsia, the latter emerging in the nineteenth century as a new social formation that basically had no exact counterpart in other countries. In time, a few representatives of other classes also joined this dialogue on the shape of the future Polish state. What is the meaning of the phrase “civic society”? Today, it is used almost naturallyby columnists and politicians representing various positions, but it was virtually non-existent during Norwid’s lifetime, although the very ideaof organizing collective life on the basis of “civic” virtues has an almost immemorial provenance. This article attempts to describe Norwid’s civic thought, mainly by analysing his discursive statements, chiefly in journalism. Norwid was decidedly opposed to any doctrinaire elevation of “humanity” (which he called a “holy abstraction”) over “nation” and “Church,” through which individuals can actually partake in “the work of ages.” Another area in which Norwid struggled to develop clear civic categories comprises visions of humanity’s universal happiness and/or its apocalyptic fall, many of which were promulgated at the time. In his polemics with utopias of “fulfilled history” it is possible to discern clear echoes of ideological debates held at the time, especially ones between mystical and political visions used by various “prophets” to describe the ultimate perspectives for the development of current events whose subject is “humanity” – a category replacing “nations,” which would be thus seen as ending their historical “mission.”From this angle, Norwidwould criticise Skład zasad[A collection of principles] by Adam Mickiewicz– a manifesto of revolutionary transformations of civic rights, which are part of the legacy of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.In a letter to Józef Bohdan Zaleski, dated 24 April 1848, Norwid expressed his outrage at most theses contained in Skład, which he saw as undermining traditional values such as “homeland,” “property,” “lineage,” “nation,” etc.

LIMITS OF MODERNIZATION, FRONTIERS OF UTOPIA – THE CASE OF STANISŁAW LEM’S "OBSERVATION ON THE SPOT"

The article reflects on the relationship between the categories of progress and modernization, and discusses their limitations exposed in Stanisław Lem’s reflection. The subject of the analysis is Lem’s late novel "Observation on the Spot", as well as his essays and discursive statements dealing with the issue of technological development and civilization progress (with all the positive and negative consequences of this process). Lem’s views on the above-mentioned issues are then set against the main theses of two lectures on technology that Martin Heidegger gave in the 1950s.

Staging the Iberian Moor in Thomas Colley Grattan’s Ben Nazir, The Saracen (1827)

Going beyond Edward Said's discursive coherence and internal consistency, this paper analyses Thomas Colley's Ben Nazir, The Saracen (1827) to illustrate the internal inconsistency, discursive incoherence, plurality, and complexity of Moorish-themed Orientalism. Unlike Edward Said's logic of monolithism and his notion of exteriority that he detailed mainly in his Orientalism, some critics, such as Lisa Lowe, Dennis Porter, Sara Mills, Peter Hulme, and Ali Behdad, to name but a few prominent critics, focus on the subtext, the hidden, and the non-said in order to transcend western hegemony, textual centrality, and fixed representation and stress the asymmetrical subversive practices that uncover discursive heterogeneities, contradictions, and slippages of authorial control. So, by exploring and adding to their productions, my reading of Ben Nazir would reveal how the representation of the Spanish Moor may be turned from a site of productive power into a site of subversive knowledge and how discursive statements may be fractured by their own gaps, silences, and incongruities. In my analysis, I argue that Colley's intention to discursively denigrate the Moor while ennobling the Christian is subversively thwarted by aesthetic demands, considerably disturbed by counter-ideologies and histories, and persistently challenged by dramatic dialogism.

Sztuka Tajemnicy. „Metafantastyka” albo teoria literatury fantastycznej Stefana Grabińskiego

The subject of the article is a pioneering in Poland critical conception of the fantastic developed by highly esteemed prewar author of the fantastic literature, Stefan Grabiński. The crucial, remarkable comments referring to fantastic literature were comprised by Grabiński in his extensive essay entitled On fantastic literature. The dissertation in question was never published in whole, however, to find its issue while his life in merely two short parts of it in press edition. In the first part of the article the archival documents were used (mainly the letters) which enabled the reconstruction of puzzling history of the manuscript of said essay now probably lost forever. In the second part, basing on the published parts of the essay, as well as other critical statements of the Polish writer, the main aspects of Grabiński’s theory were discussed. Upon the profound analyses made therefrom it appeares that Grabiński perceived and gave the fantastic genre a unique meaning and value, notably owing to its specific privileged language exposing metaphysical expression of the Mystery. The writer managed to depict in accurate, innovative and convincing way the character of fantastic literature, both in terms of historical and anthropological origin of this kind of literary creativity, and its aesthetics, social and philosophical attributes what makes these researchers innovative and even anticipativewith reference to the corresponding studies of postwar literature theoreticians of fantastic genre (e.g. L. Vax, R. Caillois, T. Todorov). Discursive statements on the issue of fantastic literature of Grabiński are further related to much wider phenomenon which was focused on developing critical analysis of fantastic literature in Poland in the first decades of the twentieth century.

“They were mostly sitting back and staying quiet”: a critical race discourse analysis of racial voyeurism in cross-racial intergroup dialogues

ABSTRACT This study utilises a critical race discourse analysis to understand how cross-racial intergroup dialogue (IGD) participants perceive racial voyeurism, a form of racism within their dialogue course. IGD is a face-to-face, co-facilitated interaction between two or more groups within a social identity-based conflict where participants form intergroup relationships, reflect critically and interpersonally, and build intergroup alliances. The discursive statements of participants analysed through critical race discourse analyses reveals how racism penetrates the IGD through race-evasiveness and the normalisation of Whiteness.

ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ ДИСКУРС ПОСЛЕ ЭНВАЙРОНМЕНТАЛЬНОГО ПОВОРОТА: КЛИМАТИЧЕСКИЕ КОНФЕРЕНЦИИ ООН

The article is devoted to the analysis of modern environmental discourse in the global public space. Multilateral conferences on environmental issues are becoming a recognized platform with a high degree of conventionality and legitimacy. The article examines elements and markers that make it possible to judge the value foundations of discursive statements and the relationships that arise between subjects. Studies of environmental discourse, conducted in the humanities from the perspective of an environmental cognitive turn, make it possible to present the complexity of modern public ideas about nature and man and form a new view on the content of discussions about the environment in the public field.

Reclaiming relationality in education policy: towards a more authentic relational pedagogy

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines articulations of relationality present in education policy texts that shape particular discursive representations of relationality between students, teachers and curriculum. The policy texts of Australian state and territory education departments are considered as a set of discursive statements to illustrate how concepts such as relationality are deployed in policy as floating signifiers. Without deep contextualisation, concepts like relationality are instead potentially co-opted and corrupted. We contend that through its uptake, relationality has become a handy catch-all in educational policy discourses, while remaining a sliding signifier, free from a more productive affective potentiality. Instead, we argue that relationality should be centred in education policymaking as part of a commitment to recentre teaching and learning at the heart of schooling through a more authentic, dialogic relational pedagogy.

Analiza kulturowo-cywilizacyjna publicznego dyskursu łamania prawa w Rosji i na Ukrainie

The paper focuses on the notion of legal culture in anthropocentric depiction as an informational-semiotic function. The authors present a typology of cultural-civilisational motives for breaking the law. A range of cultural-civilisational motives (naturalistic, turanic, byzantinic, theocratic, europeistic, and consumerist) expressed in the form of discursive statements was presented in detail; these motives cause breaking the law in a causal synergetic mode (ignorance of the law) and in a cybernetic mode (disregard for the law). The authors distinguish several types of verbal excuses for breaking the law widespread in Russian and Ukrainian legal culture discourse.

Foucault and the Historiography of Early Hellenistic Philosophy

ABSTRACT In his 1981–82 lectures The Hermeneutics of the Subject, Michel Foucault claims that a significant portion of the modern historiography of ancient philosophy tends to discredit the ethical framework of epimeleia heautou (“care of the self”). The thematic analysis of knowledge in the historiography of ancient philosophy overshadows the theme of care of the self. Taking Foucault’s claim as a point of departure, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, the paper provides a genealogy of the early Hellenistic Academy, from Polemo to Arcesilaus. Second, the paper demonstrates that for Arcesilaus, the alleged pioneer of what modern historiography has designated the Academy’s epistemological scepticism, philosophy is not restricted to a continual search for knowledge at a theoretically rarefied level of challenging arguments or discursive statements. This paper situates Arcesilaus’ opposition to early Stoic epistemology within the framework of Academic epimeleia heautou, and defends the thesis that under Arcesilaus the Hellenistic Academy undergoes a shift in the practice of care of the self.

The Kazakhstani Soviet not? Reading Nazarbayev’s Kazakhstani-ness through Brezhnev’s Soviet people

ABSTRACT Rather than interpreting President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s nation-building model of Kazakhstani-ness as a balance between civic and ethnic forms of nation-building, we show that Kazakhstani-ness was styled on Leonid Brezhnev’s supranational modern identity of the Soviet People. We explore three similarities by comparing rulers’ discursive aspirational statements (rather than historical policy trajectories) in a single case study of Kazakhstan. Both discursive models were based on teleological supranational state ideology, both were depicted as modern and advanced, and both modelled the new identity on the language and culture of ethnic majority. We used thematic discourse analysis in over 50 government documents and speeches of leaders to illustrate our argument. This case presents bigger lessons for regime’s power of defining the national membership in post-Soviet Kazakhstan and beyond.

Człowiek-zbiorowy pospolitej rzeczy. Norwid a społeczeństwo obywatelskie

Burze intelektualne i polityczne, jakie towarzyszyły krystalizacji idei obywatelskiej w wieku XIX i XX widoczne są nie tylko w Europie, szczególnie Zachodniej, ale również w Ameryce Północnej i Środkowej, a z czasem – na całym globie. Intensywne poszukiwanie „ideału obywatelstwa” widać przede wszystkim w społecznościach dawnej Rzeczpospolitej, której ostateczny upadek pod koniec wieku XVIII i kolejne fazy coraz głębszej destrukcji nie tylko nie oznaczały zaniku tradycji republikańskiej, ale wręcz wzmogły autentyczną dysputę nad drogami do nowoczesnego społeczeństwa w przyszłym, niepodległym państwie. Przodowały w tym zasadniczym dialogu głosy reprezentantów ziemiaństwa i wyłaniającej się w ciągu XIX w. klasy („stanu”) inteligencji, nowej formacji społecznej, niemającej właściwie adekwatnej analogii w innych krajach. Z czasem do tego dialogu o przyszłej Polsce włączyli się również nieliczni przedstawiciele innych klas. Jakie znaczenia zawiera wyrażenie „społeczeństwo obywatelskie”? Dziś jest ono dość „naturalnie” obecne w języku publicystów i polityków różnych „odcieni”, ale w czasach Norwida w zasadzie nie było używane, choć sama „idea” zorganizowania życia zbiorowego na fundamencie „obywatelstwa” ma rodowód wręcz odwieczny. Artykuł jest próbą opisu myśli obywatelskiej Norwida głównie poprzez analizę jego wypowiedzi dyskursywnych, głównie publicystycznych. Norwid zdecydowanie przeciwstawił się doktrynerskiemu wynoszeniu „ludzkości”, którą nazywał „świętą abstrakcją”, ponad „naród” i „Kościół”, poprzez które jednostka może realnie uczestniczyć w „pracy dziejów”. Inne pole walki o Norwida o dopracowanie się jasnych kategorii obywatelskich stanowiły ówczesne, liczne wizje powszechnego szczęścia ludzkości i/lub apokaliptycznego jej schyłku. W tych polemikach z utopiami ostatecznego „wypełnienia się dziejów” słychać wyraźnie echa sporów ideologicznych epoki, a szczególnie tych mistyczno-politycznych wizji, w których różnych odmian „prorocy” formułowali finalne perspektywy rozwoju bieżących wypadków dziejowych, których podmiotem jest „ludzkość”, powstała w miejscu dotychczasowych „narodów” kończących właśnie swą „misję” historyczną; tak m.in. dostało się Mickiewiczowskiemu Składowi zasad – czyli manifestowi rewolucyjnych przekształceń praw obywatelskich, odziedziczonych po francuskiej Deklaracji Praw Człowieka i Obywatela; w liście do Józefa Bohdana Zaleskiego z 24 kwietnia 1848 r. dał Norwid wyraz swemu oburzeniu na większość tez zawartych w Składzie, które według niego podważają tradycyjne wartości, takie jak „ojczyzna”, „własność”, „ród”, „naród” i in.

МЕЖДУ ИСКУССТВОМ И ВАНДАЛИЗМОМ: ДИСКУРСИВНАЯ ПРЕДСТАВЛЕННОСТЬ ГРАФФИТИ И СТРИТ-АРТА

Today we are witnessing significant cultural changes. The new model of culture can no longer be hierar-chical and base on binary structures. The tree model is changing to the rhizome model. Rizome offers a high level of freedom in making new connections that generate cultural reality. Big narrative as a norma-tive instance is being replaced by separate discourses that dictate norms only within themselves. In this article, we explore how the specificity of different discourses (legislative discourse, discourses of the art world and public opinion) affects the representation in them of such cultural phenomena as graffiti and street art works. From a legal point of view, graffiti and illegal street art are acts of vandalism and deserve punishment. The legislative branch operates in the field of two concepts — «permitted»/«prohibited». The semantic space of the legislative discourse has retained a binary structure and hierarchical organiza-tion. The discourse generated by the institutions of the art world is very mobile, the binary structure and hierarchical organization of its semantic space have disappeared. There obviously takes place the rhizome principle of organizing the normative space of the art world and the increasing role of the individual prin-ciple in the formation of a discursive statement. These features of the discourse created an opportunity for street artists to enter the world of art. The study of the discourse of public opinion was carried out through sociological research. Most young people not only distinguish graffiti from vandalism but are also ready to see it as a form of contemporary art. We explain the clear correlation in the responses of young people in different cities by a single media space. The results of the study confirm the disintegration of a single normative space and its replacement by local (specific) discourses.

“Cabelo (crespo e cacheado) pro alto, me levando a saltos” em meio à ressignificação das identidades de mulheres negras em contextos sociais e organizacionais

Este artigo tem coEste artigo tem como objetivo analisar processos de ressignificação de identidades de mulheres negras em sua relação com o processo chamado transição capilar e a maneira como a sociedade e as organizações vêm reagindo a essa ressignificação. O estudo contribui para o campo dos Estudos Organizacionais ao problematizar identidades em construção que transitam por diversos espaços sociais e organizacionais que precisam ser repensados a fim de compreender tal processo como muito mais amplo do que meramente estético, no sentido estrito deste termo. A pesquisa é qualitativa e envolveu a realização de entrevistas com roteiros semiestruturados com mulheres que passaram ou estão passando pela transição capilar, cujos enunciados discursivos foram analisados pela abordagem teórico-metodológica da análise francesa do discurso. Os principais resultados evidenciam que as entrevistadas, ao passarem pela transição capilar, tiveram suas identidades ressignificadas e que essa ressignificação traz relevantes alterações nas suas relações na sociedade e nas organizações.

Discourses of diversity in music education: The curriculum framework of the Norwegian Schools of Music and Performing Arts as a case

In this article, we enquire into the language of diversity as it is currently in use in the field of music education, by way of exploring the social and educational ambitions of the Norwegian system of extra-curricular, Schools of Music and Performing Arts. We take as our case the recently launched governing document of this particular educational system, named Curriculum framework for schools of music and performing arts: Diversity and deeper understanding. Analysing this document as a discursive statement, and through a Foucauldian theoretical lens, we investigate the meanings of “diversity” enacted within and across the various textual-discursive contexts of the curriculum framework, identifying and exploring four nodal points of signification, namely: 1) diversity understood as difference in students’ ethno-cultural backgrounds; 2) diversity of educational opportunities and modes of expression; 3) diversity and/or/as deeper understanding; and 4) diversity of learning arenas and contexts: entrepreneurial expectations. The discussion of the findings is conducted in dialogue with a historical understanding of the Norwegian Schools of Music and Performing Arts’ societal mandate and approach to diversity as well as various understandings of diversity within the international field of music education research. We conclude by pointing out that the macro-level institutional strategy and aim of emphasising and encouraging diversity cannot be understood as fulfilled before it has been sufficiently operationalised and has trickled down into the everyday actions of teachers and students. Only then is it implemented as a tool accessible on the micro-level and with the potential to enhance students’ participation and agency.

International high finance against the nation?

Abstract This article analyses antisemitic elements in the Austrian print media discourse about the 2008–2010 economic crisis. The relevant discursive statements are examined in the light of a theoretical understanding of antisemitic discursive threads as found in the prevalent modes of presentation of the economic and financial crisis in the media. The first main finding is the broad avoidance of openly antisemitic stereotypes, with the exception of the Neue Kronen Zeitung. The second main finding is that structurally antisemitic discursive elements appear above all where (a) specific groups (“high finance”, “financial sharks”, “speculators”) are singled out as the main culprits, (b) these are opposed to a homogeneously constructed “us” (the “Volk”), and (c) where the formers’ greed is stressed and where they are accused of harming the people. Here we find nationalistic and latent antisemitic discourses, the stereotypical contrasting of finance and production, conspiracy theories and anti-Americanism closely interwoven.

If not quality, then what? The discursive risks in early childhood quality reform

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on the findings of a genealogical study and argues that the global discourse of quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is based on a number of problematic assumptions that converge to identify ‘quality’ as the site of government investment. Using the Australian policy context as an example, the assumption that only quality ECEC is beneficial for children is linked to the historical privileging of mother-care and the male breadwinner through family policy. Using Foucault’s notion of the ‘art of government’, the implications of the discursive logics of quality are outlined, including how ‘not quality’ childcare is positioned as potentially harmful, yet, the workforce can never be ‘quality enough’. It is recommended that early childhood sector academics, advocates and professionals work to introduce new discursive statements to the global policyscape, in order to create and foster diverse representations and understandings of the benefits and value of ECEC.

Introduction to Political Biography in Literature and Cinema

This short introduction proposes to look at the growing impact of contemporary biographical films on political life, more particularly on the collective mental representations of political figures. Compared to print biographies, biographical films focus on significant periods of the subjects' lives, and even more on specific issues or debates related to those, to propose discursive statements on certain crucial questions of general interest. Envisaging film biographies through the perspective of their more recent evolution, which goes far beyond the historically situated form still more or less implied by the term "biopic," this introduction goes on to reflect on the different aesthetic perceptions of fictionalization in film and print. Finally, it offers brief summaries of the articles gathered in this cluster.

A BASE NACIONAL COMUM CURRICULAR E A PRODUÇÃO BIOPOLÍTICA DA EDUCAÇÃO COMO FORMAÇÃO DE “CAPITAL HUMANO”

Este artigo debate a Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) tomando, como ponto de partida, os enunciados discursivos expressos no site oficial do Movimento pela Base Nacional Comum Curricular. Trata-se, portanto, de uma pesquisa bibliográfico-documental. Problematiza como a BNCC, ao apresentar um conjunto padrão de conhecimentos e habilidades essenciais que cada estudante brasileiro deve aprender a cada etapa da Educação Básica, se afirma como um dispositivo de poder que busca controlar e/ou regular a vida, no sentido de estabelecer quais conhecimentos e habilidades são essenciais, em termos de competências individuais, para fundamentar as avaliações em larga escala, os processos de aprendizagem recognitivos, a formação do homo economicus neoliberal, ignorando os múltiplos contextos escolares não definíveis a priori. Conclui sobre a necessidade de buscar, no âmago da petrificação da vida, a sua afirmação, via um movimento de composição no plano de imanência do currículo que se contraponha ao biopoder, quer dizer, ao poder sobre a vida, pois a biopotência conecta-se ao desejo coletivo de conexão com os múltiplos contextos e cotidianos escolares, assim como com a ideia de currículo como corpo grupal que apresente consistência num plano de composição de um comum plural. Nesse sentido, a comunidade escolar necessita minimizar os fatores que induzem à passividade ou à potência mínima grupal e estabelecer conexões e/ou modos de associação que possibilitem, na grupalidade, o compartilhamento de ideias e experiências, agenciando a potência máxima de realização curricular.

(Con)tradições do discurso de invenção da Amazônia Sul-ocidental

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1807-1384.2017v14n1p133Este artigo trata da construção de tradições por meio do discurso, as quais contribuem para a formação identitária de sujeitos históricos. Nosso objetivo é problematizar a invenção de tradições no estado do Acre, cujas consequências envolvem a associação entre historiografia e política do governo estatal. Nesse contexto, Hobsbawm (2006) é citado por abordar a questão da invenção das tradições; Bakhtin (2003), a construção de enunciados discursivos e Ranzi (2008), as raízes sociais da formação do Acre. Por fim, citam-se exemplos concretos para explicar os processos que influenciam a constituição de um discurso massificado sobre uma das tantas Amazônias que existem: a acreana.