An Ecolinguistic Approach to Critical Discourse Studies

This article explores the recently emerging area of ecolinguistics as a form of critical discourse study. While ecolinguistics tends to use the same forms of linguistic analysis as traditional critical discourse studies, the normative framework it operates in considers relationships of humans not just with other humans but also with the larger ecological systems that all life depends on. Ecolinguistics analyses discourses from consumerism to nature poetry, critiquing those which encourage ecologically destructive behaviour and seeking out those which encourage relationships of respect and care for the natural world. The expanded context of ecolinguistics complicates power relations between oppressor and oppressed since it considers impacts on non-human subjects and future generations not yet born, necessitating both theoretical development of CDS and an application of an ecologically based normative framework for judging discourses against

Disability, gender and power in Japanese television drama

Traditionally, people with disabilities have been kept segregated and invisible in Japanese society and media. The 1990s, however, saw the start of a surprising boom in the portrayal of disability on Japanese television. Within the last ten years, there have been popular, prime-time dramas featuring portrayals of paraplegia, deafness, autism, visual impairment and learning disabilities. At first sight, the sudden increase in programmes about disability seems to follow a number of political changes which occurred in Japan during the 1990s, as increased disabled activism created pressure to move away from the widely condemned medical model of disability towards new constructions. But closer analysis suggests that, while the television dramas manage to avoid some of the negative images that have appeared on television in the West, their overall effect is that of reinforcing many of the aspects of the traditional medical model. This is particularly true for dramas that feature disabled female characters, suggesting a relationship between representations of disability based on the medical model and traditional representations of gender

Counter-discourses and the relationship between humans and other animals

Several recent studies have critically analyzed discourses involved in the oppression and exploitation of nonhuman animals, including those of the meat industry and zoos. This article turns the spotlight oil counter-discourses, such as those of ecology and animal liberation, to ask if the alternatives they promote have the potential to contribute towards more harmonious relationships between humans and other animals. Despite their extreme importance in opposing oppressive discourses, the counter-discourses frequently share some of the basic assumptions of the discourses they criticize

Deep Ecology and Language: The Curtailed Journey of the Atlantic Salmon

This article explores the representation of fish in ecological discourse through analysis of the recently published Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA. 2005) synthesis report. The analysis utilizes an ecological framework based on "deep ecology" (Naess, 1990), examining how the discourse of the MA asserts or denies the intrinsic worth of fish. The discursive construction of fish is particularly relevant given the massive expansion of the aquaculture industry, which is having a negative impact on ecosystems and the fish themselves, particularly the Atlantic salmon. There are alternatives to traditional ecological discourses, such as the lyrical discourse drawn on by Rachel Carson (1962) in her description of salmon. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential of such discourses to represent reality in ways that are more comparable with the welfare of the fish and the protection of ecosystems

The Corporation as Person and Psychopath: Multimodal Metaphor, Rhetoric and Resistance

This article conducts a detailed analysis of multimodal metaphor in the documentary film The Corporation, with particular focus on the metaphor the corporation is a person. The metaphors that make up the film are analysed within the immediate context of the rhetorical structure of the film, the discursive context of the use of the corporation is a person metaphor by corporations to gain power, and the background context of the corporation is a person as a ubiquitous conceptual metaphor in everyday cognition. The metaphors in the film are then compared with other multimodal metaphors from two protest videos. The article can be thought of as Positive Discourse Analysis, in that the use of metaphors in the film and videos is held up as an example of how multimodal media can be used to resist hegemonic discourses that harm people and the environment. A practical aim of the analysis is to reveal the detailed workings of the metaphors in order to provide resources that can be drawn on in the construction of effective materials for challenging hegemonic constructions of the corporation in the future

Language, Power and the Social Construction of Animals

This paper describes how language contributes to the oppression and exploitation of animals by animal product industries. Critical Discourse Analysis, a framework usually applied in countering racism and sexism, is applied to a corpus of texts taken from animal industry sources. The mass confinement and slaughter of animals in intensive farms depend on the implicit consent of the population, signaled by its willingness to buy animal products produced in this way. Ideological assumptions embedded in everyday discourse and that of the animal industries manufacture and maintain this consent. Through analysis of texts, this paper attempts to expose these assumptions and discusses implications for countering the domination and exploitation of animals

Haiku and Beyond: Language, Ecology, and Reconnection with the Natural World

This article presents a detailed analysis of the representation of animals, plants and nature in Japanese haiku. In haiku, animals and plants are written back into the language, appearing for themselves as manifestations of life deserving of empathy and respect. In this way, haiku encourage ecological consciousness in tune with the local environment, in contrast to both industrial and environmental discourses in the west, which frequently portray animals as objects, tokens of species, or resources. The power of haiku, the conclusion claims, lies in its ability to transcend itself and encourage relationships with nature which are unmediated by language