Search results

The Language of Pick-Up Artists: Online Discourses of the Seduction IndustryDaria Dayter and Sofia Rüdiger (2022)Routledge, 217pp.

Abstract
In this article I start from an understanding of songs as socio-cultural discourses which may
also perform a political function. This political function can be reflected in the promotion of particular
world-views about given socio-political events and/or in the attempt by the singer to make the audience
perform given political actions. To prove this, I will look at the re-contextualisation process undergone by a
well-known song by U2: "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" (1983). This song was originally written to respond to the
violence of the Northern Irish conflict, but it has been later used to react to other socio-political events.
By relying on a cognitive approach to the study of songs, this paper tries to answer two questions: (i) how
can we explain the re-contextualisation process undergone by the song and why is it possible? and (ii) how is
politics embedded in musical performances?

This paper employs the hypothesis that one of the functions of political discourse is to legitimise a perceived point of view by promoting certain representations of a socio-political reality. It could be argued that the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement creates a paradoxical reality in Northern Ireland because its language is so vague that it can be interpreted in different ways. This paper analyses linguistic categories used in the text of the Agreement to reveal the type of peaceful reality promoted and the constructive ambiguity used to facilitate agreement. It argues that the success of the peace process depended to a large extent on the particular nuances of discourse in and around this crucial document.

Abstract
In this article we study the discursive construction of the EU managerial role in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in four Spanish newspapers: two
published in mainland Spain – El Mundo and El País – and two published in Catalonia – La
Vanguardia and ARA. By doing a qualitative study of newspapers, this article aims to identify which
discourse strategies are used when informing about the actions and decisions taken in European political and economic fora. The
analysis identifies the three main generic frames which are used in news pieces: morality (mostly as a call for solidarity),
economic (mostly as preventing possible harm), and conflict (focused on divide(s) within (EU)rope). The activation of these frames
in the news pieces contribute to an implicit legitimation of the existence of (EU)rope as based on two core values – solidarity
and cooperation – together with a delegitimation of the actions performed by some European institutions.

"This collection explores the discursive strategies and linguistic resources underpinning conflict and polarization, taking a multidisciplinary approach to examine the ways in which conflict is constructed across a diverse range of contexts. The volume is divided into two sections as a means of identifying two different dimensions to conflict construction and bridging the gap between different perspectives through a constructivist framework. The first part comprises chapters looking at socio-political conflicts across specific geographic contexts across the US, Europe, and Latin America. The second half of the book unpacks socio-cultural conflicts, those not defined by physical borders but shaped by ideological differences on core values, such as on religion, gender, and the environment. Drawing on frameworks across such fields as linguistics, critical discourse analysis, rhetoric studies, and cognitive studies, the book offers new insights into the discursive polarization that permeates contemporary communicative interactions and the ways in which a better understanding of conflict and its origins might serve as a mechanism for providing new ways forward. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in critical discourse analysis, linguistics, rhetoric studies, and peace and conflict studies"--

This essay analyzes why John Gower set the "Tale of the Three Questions," the concluding story in Book I of the Confessio Amantis, in Spain. Written during a time of intense parliamentary concerns over money apparently wasted by Richard II's uncles on military campaigns against Castille-Leon, the tale argues tar the relevance of Spain to England and for the relevance of poetic counsel in domestic politics. The question of Spain in English politics in the 1380s offered Gower a way into debates among the magnates and parliaments of England by evoking past and present Anglo-Castilian relationships. He imagines a situation in which the strategy of good counsel works, suggesting a more acceptable set of choices: alliance and realignment instead of the absolutism of either conquest or avoidance.

Defining the principles that apply to resolving conflicts between individuals in The Wife of Bath 's Tale and comparing them to parallel conflicts in Gower's "Tale of Florent," one discovers that The Wife of Bath 's Tale foregrounds appeals to political, social, religious, and ethical authority -all of which are questioned, discussed, and negotiated. In the "Tale of Florent," on the other hand, conflict tends to be internal rather than between individuals. Florent's conflicts are resolved by himself alone thinking about the obligations he has accepted in his various covenants, and then behaving in such a way that he does not lie or cheat or break his pledge. Conflict resolution in Gower depends upon absolute commitment to principle, the culturally sanctioned rules that govern human behavior. Conflicts in the "Tale of Florent" are not resolved through argument, debate, negotiation with an adversary as in Chaucer's text.

This article explores the connections between the views of Love and Fortune in the Confessio Amantis and in works by Guillaume de Machaut. lt demonstrates Machaut's anti-Boethian views that the worthy lover may escape Fortune's control through the exercise of virtue and applies those views to Gower's presentation of both love and political fortunes. In the Prologue and Book I, in particular, Gower establishes Love and Fortune as essentially interchangeable, preparing the reader to understand each as the product of reciprocal relationships between people, rather than the result of Fortune or Love capriciously turning a wheel. The Confessio thus aims to enable readers to adopt virtuous behaviors, not to court love but rather to court good fortune more broadly.

In each instance that John Gower uses the term "Saracen" in his Confessio Amantis to characterize the enemies of Christendom, Juan de Cuenca' s prose Castilian translation, the Confisyon del Amante, employs alternative language -language that predominantly downplays rather than exacerbates scenes of religious conflict. This essay analyzes these divergent representations of difference to argue that such comparative analysis of English and Spanish texts makes legible each writer's differing investments in narratives of Christianity's violence and pacifism, its anxieties about its religious neighbors and its belief in its own triumphant ascendancy. Understanding the interpretive nuances of these differences between Gower and Cuenca carries implications for our understanding of the political, historical, and literary transactions between England and Castile and Leon in the late middle ages.

"This book addresses an under-researched area within populism studies: the discourse of supporters of populist parties. Taking the 2019 European elections as their case study, the authors analyse how supporters in eleven different countries construct identities and voting motivations on social media. The individual chapters comprise a range of methods to investigate data from different social media platforms, defining populism as a political strategy and/or practice, realised in discourse, that is based on a dichotomy between "the people", who are unified by their will, and an out-group whose actions are not in the interest of the people, with a leader safeguarding the interests of the people against the out-group. The book identifies what motivates people to vote for populist parties, what role national identities and values play in those motivations, and how the social media postings of populist parties are recontextualised in supporters' comments to serve as a voting motivation"--