Photographic disasters

The word neither diffident nor ostentatious ... The common word exact without vulgarity, The formal word precise but not pedantic. (Eliot 221

Talking (across) cultures: Grace and danger in the House of the European inquirer

In this paper, I want to begin to contemplate the possibility that the concept of culture could one day be thought outside modern Western thought, via a reading of Martin Heidegger's 'Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer'. As we shall see, for Heidegger, the dominant position here is representationalism. And so a large part of what I want to do here is to begin to shake the concept of culture from these dominant representationalist moorings

Questions of context in studies of talk and interaction—Ethnomethodology and conversation analysis

The questions dealt with in this special issue of Journal of Pragmatics are doubly vexed. The first matter at issue is that the papers I have solicited take on some aspects of the debate within, and between, ethnomethodology (EM) and conversation analysis (CA) – and, by extension, wider approaches to discourse analysis and perhaps even pragmatics as a whole – as to whether and, if so to what extent, contextual particulars are relevant to the analyst’s task in hand; therefore specifying, to some degree, what that task actually is

Editorial: Culture

The original idea for this issue of M/C was for contributors to discuss the many and varying possible meanings of the word "culture" and/or the various uses of the concepts of culture (in general) and cultures (in particular)

Not as stupid as all that: the Althusserian legacy

If Toby Miller's introduction to this volume is correct - and I see no reason to think otherwise - then cultural/screen studies may still need (perhaps as a consequence of its history alone) an input from Marxism. But that input, it seems, in the face of an unrelenting theoretical pluralism, will henceforth always be minor. Cultural studies remains "marxish" (though I still can't remember whether this is a term used by or about Eugene Kamenka). So what price Althusser, for us, today

Getting on My Nerves: A Memoir

I suffer from trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and have done so for several decades. The condition is intermittent but tends to get worse with age. Sometimes I’ll get a fortnight or so of chronic attacks. Other times, just a few twinges. But when a full attack kicks in, the pain is utterly unbearable. The term ‘suicide disease’ has been bandied about (Sarmah, 2008) and I have a good idea why..

The Humdrum

"Popular Culture" is usually taken to mean the culture of everyday life; albeit that the focus of a great deal of popular culture studies tend to be the occasional spectacular spikes that can occur in the rather dull and uniform wave pattern of the mundane..

UNA APROXIMACIÓN AL ANÁLISIS CRÍTICO DE LOS DISCURSOS EVALUATIVOS (ACDE)

[EN] In the present paper some of the issues and results concerning the research project entitled “A critical analysis of the evaluative discourse of Spanish Language teachers in 10th and 11th grade in schools in Ibagué” (2007) are discussed. In the first place, the introduction focuses on certain general aspects of discursive studies. This is followed by a description of the theoretical models which are central to the interpretation and analysis of the results obtained in the research work. Next, a critical analysis of some of the evaluative discourse samples in both the oral and written medium is carried out. Lastly the conclusions are presented, followed by the bibliographical references which were used in the study[ES] En este texto se presentan algunos aspectos y hallazgos de la investigación: "Análisis crítico de los discursos evaluativos de los docentes de lengua castellana de los grados décimo (10º) y once (11º), de algunas instituciones educativas de Ibagué" (2007). Para llevar a cabo lo anterior, se expone, a manera de introducción, algunos aspectos generales del estudio discursivo; en forma seguida, se plantea la postura teórica empleada como eje investigativo y argumental de la interpretación y el análisis de las muestras. De igual manera, se presenta el análisis crítico de algunas muestras discursivas evaluativas orales y escritas, y en última instancia, las conclusiones y la bibliografía de referencia empleada.Londoño Zapata, OI. (2009). UNA APROXIMACIÓN AL ANÁLISIS CRÍTICO DE LOS DISCURSOS EVALUATIVOS (ACDE). Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas. 4:103-124. doi:10.4995/rlyla.2009.738SWORD103124

Membership categorization, culture and norms in action

In this article, we examine the extent to which membership categorization analysis (MCA) can inform an understanding of reasoning within the public domain where morality, policy and cultural politics are visible (Smith and Tatalovich, 2003). Through the examination of three examples, we demonstrate how specific types of category device(s) are a ubiquitous feature of accountable practice in the public domain where morality matters and public policy intersect. Furthermore, we argue that MCA provides a method for analysing the mundane mechanics associated with everyday cultural politics and democratic accountability assembled and presented within news media and broadcast settings