Interdiscursive Relations Research Articles

From the “War on Poverty” to the “War on the Poor”: Knowledge, Power, and Subject Positions in Anti-Poverty Discourses

Anti-poverty discourses are interrogated through a case study of articles on the websites of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and The Toronto Star covering a tenant activism campaign. An autonomous media article by OCAP on direct actions to “stop the war on the poor” is compared with an article in The Toronto Star depicting tenant-activists lobbying government in the “war on poverty.” Subjectivity and power relations are analyzed by deconstructing binaries, including deserving/undeserving poor, pride/shame, and dignity/stigmatization. I find productive interdiscursive relations emerging, whereby the two discourses are mutually implicated in creating possibilities for social transformation. I also argue that critical discourse analysis needs to become a more participatory engaged methodology, taking direction from and providing accountability to its research subjects.

Representations of people with HIV and hepatitis C in editorials of medical journals: Discourses and interdiscursive relations

HIV and hepatitis C are blood-borne viruses that cause chronic diseases and affect (in parts of the developed world) predominantly groups that are marginalized and discriminated against: gay men and injecting drug users, respectively. This paper compares the representation of people with HIV and hepatitis C in editorials of medical journals between 1989 and 2001. Analysis is informed by critical discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics. Hepatitis C editorials draw almost exclusively on the discourse of biomedicine, and patients are either absent or objects in medical procedures. In HIV editorials, a variety of other discourses are integrated into the discourse of biomedicine, thereby creating multidimensional representations of people with HIV as patients and agents in medical procedures, involved in decision making, affected by economic factors, social and cultural issues. The paper discusses the role of the gay community in discursive change and argues that discursive diversity in the representation of people infected with HIV and hepatitis C in medical journals is necessary for health policy, the professional development of healthcare providers, and media reporting to the general public.

?I didn't think I was at risk?: Interdiscursive relations in narratives of sexual practices and exposure to HIV

This article is concerned with the discursive construction of sexual practices and 'risk' in gay men's accounts of exposure to HIV. The data are in-depth interviews from two Sydney-based studies. While the events reported in both studies were very similar, there are considerable differences in the language choices. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and systemic functional linguistics, this paper shows how language choices in individual narratives resonate intertextually with the public health discourse of safe sex, which emphasizes knowledge of safe sex, control over sexual practices and condom use. While in accounts of exposure to HIV in the context of prevention sexual practice is construed consistently as 'doing' with the speakers as Actor, in accounts of exposure to HIV in the context of transmission it is construed predominantly as 'thinking' and 'being'. There are also differences in the negotiation of alternatives. All narratives resonate with the discourse of safe sex, however, it is not passively reflected in speech but is actively engaged with and shaped to fit the knowledge and understanding of individuals. The narratives also resonate with the private world of intimate relationships and everyday life. This suggests a notion of 'risk' as a hybrid of multiple, potentially conflicting discourses.

Tinta e sangue: o diário de Frida Kahlo e os 'quadros' de Clarice Lispector

O texto<a name=top1></a><a href="#back1">¹</a> explora as relações interdiscursivas entre as criações do mundo privado e aquelas destinadas ao olhar público, questionando como realizações à margem da chamada Obra (conjunto das produções reconhecidas publicamente) contribuem para a construção da imagem identitária de seus artífices, no caso, duas excepcionais mulheres da cultura latino-americana da modernidade: Frida Kahlo e Clarice Lispector.

Nuestras antigüedades: la formación del canon poético medieval en el siglo XVIII

The article analyses the status of a small number of key texts of the Spanish Medieval literary canon prior to the constitution of Spanish Literature as an autonomous macrotextual formation inscribed in a fully nationalized culture. This analysis is concerned with shifts of meaning linked to changes both in the institutional setting in which texts are transmitted and in the network of interdiscursive relations within which these texts take on meaning.

No Joking Matter: Discursive Struggle in the Canadian Refugee System

Organizations often engage in discursive struggle as they attempt to shape and manage the institutional field of which they are a part. This struggle is influenced by broader discourses at the societal level that enable and constrain discursive activity within the institutional field. We investigate this relationship by combining a study of political cartoons, as indicators of the broader societal discourse around immigration, with a case study of the Canadian refugee system, a complex institutional field. Our analysis reveals the complex intertextual and interdiscursive relations that characterize and surround institutional fields, and shows how discursive struggle in the refugee determination system is shaped by, and shapes, broader societal discourses.