Discourse

The term discourse refers to a series of utterances or statements connected through their institutional context, the form of language used, and its meaning or significance. It may refer to a single text, such as a formal discussion in writing, or it may refer to a group of related texts by various authors. It may also refer to spoken discussion or debate. The analysis of [Page 460]discourse is associated with different traditions of contemporary thought, but all emphasize the use of language to sustain and express a society's culture.

In one tradition, the term grows out of linguistics, particularly sociolinguistics, and refers to the analysis of language—spoken or written—in units larger than a sentence. Grammar and syntax are focused on the sentence, while phonology, morphology, and semantics focus on the form and meaning of individual words. When linguists address the structural properties of discourse, how any one sentence is formed is related to previous sentences and its impact on subsequent sentences and the overall meaning of the discourse. Whether in a sustained speech, a continuous text, or a conversational exchange, the linguistic features—the length of sentences, the complexity of subclauses, the range of vocabulary, for example—contribute to the meaning of the discourse. An analysis of discourse in this linguistic style will also consider how the type of language used is directed to particular listeners or readers. There is considerable overlap between the study of pragmatics in linguistics, the ethnography of talk, conversation analysis, and the analysis of speech as discourse.

A second tradition treats discourse as a cultural form and derives from the work of structuralist and poststructuralist writers including Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. Here the emphasis shifts from the linguistic properties of the discourse to its structural properties as meaning and as knowledge. Claims to know are made in what Foucault calls “statements,” and their cumulative effect in discourse is to produce a “positivity,” a series of positive statements on a particular topic that might also be thought of as a discipline or subject (e.g., political economy, biology, or philology). The series of statements in a discourse does not derive from a single source because an author will refer to, incorporate, and modify earlier statements by others, using their concepts and ideas even when disagreeing with them. Any possible origin of knowledge becomes culturally significant only once it is given a linguistic form of presentation as speech or writing through which it can be shared and responded to. Even knowledge that is heavily dependent on mathematics, diagrams, or images needs to be uttered or expressed in a discursive—that is, linguistic—form. One of the major consequences of Foucault's conceptualization of discourse is that he shows its role in the operation of power in society and the institutional processes that sustain it. To be able to make statements that are heard, incorporated, and responded to is to be able to enter the circuits of power. To have no voice—to be rebutted, silenced, excluded, or ridiculed—is to be deprived of influence on the content of discourse and, ultimately, on its material effects on bodies.

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