20 research outputs found
From Teamchef Arminius to Hermann Junior: glocalised discourse about a national foundation myth
If for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the âBattle of the Teutoburg Forestâ, fought in 9 CE between Roman armies and Germanic tribes, was predominantly a reference point for nationalist and chauvinist discourses in Germany, the first decade of the twenty-first century has seen attempts to link public remembrance with local/regional identities on the one hand and international/intercultural contact on the other. In the run up to and during the âanniversary yearâ of 2009, German media, sports institutions and various other official institutions articulating tourist, economic and political interests attempted to create a new âglocalisedâ version of the public memory of the Teutoburg battle. Combining methods of Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, the paper analyses the narrative and argumentative topoi employed in this re-orientation of public memory, with a special emphasis on hybrid, post-national identity-construction. Das zweitausendjĂ€hrige Gedenkjahr der âSchlacht im Teutoburger Waldâ im Jahr 2009 bot eine gĂŒnstige Gelegenheit, die bis in die zweite HĂ€lfte des 20. Jahrhunderts dominante Tradition nationalistischâchauvinistischer Deutungen des Sieges von germanischen StĂ€mmen ĂŒber drei römische Legionen zu korrigieren und zu ĂŒberwinden. Der Aufsatz analysiert mit Hilfe diskurslinguistischer Methoden die Anstrengungen regionaler Institutionen und Medien, die nationale Vereinnahmung des historischen Gedenkens kritisch zu thematisieren sowie neue, zum eine lokal situierte, zum andern international orientierte Identifikationsangebote anzubieten. Die Analyse zeigt, dass solche âde-nationalisiertenâ Identifikationsangebote zwar teilweise auch frĂŒher verwendet wurden, aber heutzutage rekontextualisiert und auf innovative Weise in den Vordergrund gestellt werden
The study of metaphor as part of Critical Discourse Analysis
This article discusses how the study of metaphoric and more generally, figurative language use contributes to critical discourse analysis (CDA). It shows how cognitive linguistsâ recognition of metaphor as a fundamental means of concept- and argument-building can add to CDA's account of meaning constitution in the social context. It then discusses discrepancies between the early model of conceptual metaphor theory and empirical data and argues that discursive-pragmatic factors as well as sociolinguistic variation have to be taken into account in order to make cognitive analyses more empirically and socially relevant. In conclusion, we sketch a modified cognitive approach informed by Relevance Theory within CDA
Humanistic Bildung: regulative idea or empty concept?
The article focuses on the notion and humanistic ideal of self-cultivation and self-transformation, for which the term Bildung is/was traditionally used in German educational thought. It is argued that the idea of Bildung, understood as human development and end-in-itself, is not a German exclusivity. However, to understand the specificity of the notion, it may be necessary to consider that German EnlightenmentâAufklĂ€rungâin which the term gained a lot of importance, came later in history than French, English, and Scottish Enlightenment. Whereas in the early Western Enlightenment period, freedom was understood as an outward, definitely political concept, in later German Enlightenment the predominant understanding of freedom was characterized by a rather aesthetic dimension, not outward but internal freedom. The shift from a political understanding of Enlightenmentâlike in France, and also England or Scotlandâto German inwardness (âInnerlichkeitâ), as realized by the concept of Bildung, can beâat least to a certain degreeâinterpreted as a desire of German intellectuals at the time to escape from a brutal and on the whole disappointing post-revolutionary world to a place where man could seek secular perfection: an escape toward inwardness
Critical Discourse Analysis: Definition, Approaches, Relation to Pragmatics, Critique, and Trends
This chapter introduces the transdisciplinary research movement of critical discourse analysis (CDA) beginning with its definition and recent examples of CDA work. In addition, approaches to CDA such as the dialectical relational (Fairclough), sociocognitive (van Dijk), discourse historical (Wodak), social actors (van Leeuwen), and the Foucauldian dispositive analysis (Jager and Maier) are outlined, as well as the complex relation of CDA to pragmatics. Next, the chapter provides a brief mention of the extensive critique of CDA, the creation of critical discourse studies (CDS), and new trends in CDA, including positive discourse analysis (PDA), CDA with multimodality, CDA and cognitive linguistics, critical applied linguistics, and other areas (rhetoric, education, anthropology/ethnography, sociolinguistics, culture, feminism/gender, and corpus studies). It ends with new directions aiming towards social action for social justice