Intertextuality and the Representation of Insults in Pro-NPP and Pro-NDC Newspapers in Ghana: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Intertextuality is the idea that "text cannot be viewed or studied in isolation since texts are not produced or consumed in isolation: all texts exist, and therefore must be understood, in relation to other texts" (Richardson, 2007, p. 100). In this study, I examine the kinds of Intertextuality used in the representation of insults in pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) newspapers in Ghana. I relate Intertextuality to van Dijk's ideological square to show how newspapers re-echo and legitimize the voice of the in-group by assigning them with authoritative qualities and titles, credentials that make whatever they say very reliable and at times taken as the truth without submitting them to any critical evaluation. However, in instances where the voices of the out-group members are reported, as Rojo (1995, p. 54) puts it, it is a means to "criticize them or discredit them." The application of Intertextuality, in this study, reveals what both pro-NPP and pro-NDC papers consider newsworthy, that is, whose insult or voice is reported and whose is not. It shows how the in-group's insults are represented in relation to the out-group. It further identifies the underlying ideologies in the representation of insults in Ghanaian political discourse.