Valtio-oppi ilman valtiota (II): Semioottinen tekstianalyysi kerronnallisista rakenteista Jussi Teljon artikkelissa »Valtio-opin tehtävät ja menetelmät»

Abstract

The article is the latter part of a textual analysis of a now-classical methodological proclamation of a research program in Finnish political science. The semiotic theory of »1’école de Paris», founded by A. J. Greimas, is applied for an investigation of the »surplus of meaning» added by »discursive structures» to the foundation - analyzed in the former part of the article - laid by the narrative structures. The discursive structures introduce concrete actors to represent the narrative and abstract dramatis personae, divide discourse along different themes, organize discourse spatially and temporally, and create the »meaning effect of reality» or the »referential illusion» by using, e.g., rhetorical and discursive figures such as metaphors. In the proclamation analyzed, such actors are introduced as »the voting research of behavioralist political science» to represent the »bearer» of the main role of the »story», and the grand theme is the development of Finnish political research from »speculation to science». Spatiotemporally, such »fields» are distinguished as »past Finnish political science», »present American behavioralist political science», or »future Finnish political science», and all the fields are differently value-laden. The referential illusion is created in the proclamation essentially by adopting the Finnish postwar »connotative social ontology» emphasizing consensus and reconstruction, thereby making political science a legitimatory medium, and by the »epistemological rupture» of the introduction of behavioralism, whose discourses are couched ultimately in the terms of figures of sensory experience