Language, Power and Ideology in Norman Fairclough’s ‘Critical’ Approach to Discourse Analysis
Subject Areas : Research in Theoritical Politicsجهانگیر جهانگیری 1 , علی بندرریگیزاده 2
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Abstract :
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) started in the early 1990s and has become a well-established field in the social science in the twenty-first century .CDA can be defined as a problem-oriented interdisciplinary research program. In general, power, and especially institutionally reproduced power, is central to CDA. The purpose of CDA is to analyze opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language. CDA states that discourse is an instrument of power. The way this instrument of power works is often hard to understand, and CDA aims to make it more visible and transparent. A critical discourse analysis should not be a discourse analysis that reacts against power alone. It should be an analysis of power effects, of the outcome of power, of what power does to people, groups, and societies, and of how this impact comes about. The deepest effect of power everywhere is inequality, as power differentiates and selects, includes and excludes. CDA is an approach to the analysis of discourse which views language as a social practice and is interested in the ways that ideologies and power relations are expressed through language. It wants to understand how language is used to create, maintain and challenge power relationships and ideologies. Norman Fairclough is one of the most famous thinkers of CDA. He seeks to develop ways of analyzing language which address its involvement in the working of contemporary capitalist societies. He is working in a tradition of critical social research which is focused on better understanding of how and why contemporary capitalism prevents or limits, as well as in certain respects facilitating, human well-being and flourishing. Such understanding may, in favorable circumstances, contribute to overcoming or at least mitigating these obstacles and limits.
