Introduction to Political Discourse Analysis

The μοδθλε seeks to highlight the fundamental relationship between language and politics and to familiarize students with political rhetoric, the characteristics of political discourse, the art of persuasion, the language of propaganda, political campaigning and advertising (multimodal texts) used by political parties, governments and newspapers. Through Critical Discourse Analysis and Political Discourse Analysis, as well as the study and analysis with special software (AntConc, Voyant Tools, etc.) of authentic texts and text corpora, students become familiar with the mechanisms and tricks used by politicians, advertisers and communicators to persuade and attract supporters and clients, while learning to identify and recognize the specificities of political discourse. Emphasis is placed on the use of idiomatic language, metonymy and prosody, the elements of prosody and the extra-linguistic features of political speech.

Upon successful completion of the course, postgraduate students will be able to:
- understand the fundamental relationship between language and politics 
- recognise the ways in which political discourse works
- understand the basic modes and main methodology of analysing political texts
- understand the basic modes and methodology of analysis of multimodal texts
- analyse and decode the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of political discourse
- use specific software for the analysis of corpora (AntConc, Voyant Tools)

Week 1: Political discourse, political rhetoric: the main features. Categories of political discourse texts. Critical Discourse Analysis.
Week 2: Means of persuasion, metaphor, metonymy, repetition, rhetorical patterns.
Week 3: Methodology and theoretical approaches to political discourse analysis. Theories of Political Discourse Analysis.
Week 4: Technology in the service of Political Discourse Analysis - Presentation and hand-on-practice of corpus analysis software (AntConc, Voyant Tools).
Week 5: Saussure's Domism and Berger-Luckmann's Constructivism in Political Rhetoric
Week 6: The Mythology of Political Discourse - Barthes
Week 7: Ideology and Political Discourse - Laclau
Week 8: Passion and Nation in Political Rhetoric - Lacan
Week 9: Political Discourse Analysis - examples
Week 10: Analysis of selected political texts. Application of acquired knowledge.
Week 11: Presentation of assignments and discussion
Week 12: Presentation of assignments and discussion.
Week 13: Presentation of assignments and discussion

Beard, A. (2000) The Language of Politics. London: Routledge.

Chilton, P. (2004) Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.

Chilton, P. and Schaeffner, C. (eds) (2002) Politics as Text and Talk: Analytical Approaches to Political Discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Cockroft, R. and Cockroft, S. M. (1992) Persuading People. London: Macmillan.

Fairclough, Norman (2001). Language and Power (2nd edition). London: Longman.

Fairclough, Ν. (2000) New Labour, New Language?. London and New York: Routledge.

Φραγκουδάκη Α., Γλώσσα και ιδεολογία, εκδ. Οδυσσέας, Αθήνα 1987.

Goatly, A. (1997) The Language of Metaphors. London: Routledge.

Kalyango, Y. and Kopytowska, M. (ed.) (2014) Why Discourse matters: Negotiating Identity in the Mediatized World. NY: Peter Lang.

Karner, Ch. and M. Kopytowska (eds) (2017) Europe in Times of Crisis: Doing and Undoing Europe. Bingley: Emerald.

Kopytowska, M. (Ed.) (2017) Contemporary Discourses of Hate and Radicalism across Space and Genres. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kopytowska, M. (2015). Ideology of here and now. Critical Discourse Studies 12(3): 347-365.

Kopytowska, M. (2015). Discourse of hate and radicalism in action. Special Issue on Contemporary discourses of hate and radicalism across space and genres, Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 3:1, 1–11.

Kurtes, S. and Kopytowska, M. (red.) (2014). Communicating identities in daily interaction: Theory, practice, pedagogy. Special Issue on Communicating identities in daily interaction: Theory, practice, pedagogy. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 10. 1: 1-17.

Kopytowska, M. (2014). Modality, distance, and the television news genre. Revista de estudos do discurso 3, 68-92.

Kopytowska, M. (2012). “Critical Perspectives on Ideology, Identity and Interaction”. CADAAD Journal. Special Issue on Ideology, Identity and Interaction in Discourse 5(2): i-xiv.

Kress, G. and R. Hodge [1979] (1994) Language as Ideology, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul; revised as Hodge R. and G. Kress, 1993, Language as Ideology. London, Routledge.

Lakoff, G. (1993) “The contemporary theory of metaphor”. In A. Ortony, Metaphor and Thought.

Lakoff, G. (1987) Women, Fire and Dangerous Things. What Categories Reveal about the Mind.

Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G. and Johnson. M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Νικήτας, Κ. (1962). Περί προφορικού λόγου και ρητορικής. Οδηγός ομιλητικής και ρητορικής. (Γ΄ έκδοση) Αθήναι: Εκδόσεις Ινστιτούτου Ρητορικής

Okulska, U. and Cap P. (eds) (2010) Perspectives in Politics and Discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Orwell, G. (1946) Politics and the English Language. (Reprinted in Inside the Whale and Other Essays, 1962). London: Penguin.

Schaeffner, C.  and Bassnett, S. (eds) (2010). Political Discourse, Media and Translation. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Schaeffner, C. (2008) “The Prime Minister said ... Voices in translated political texts”. In: SYNAPS Fagspråk, Kommunikasjon, Kulturkunnskap. 2008, 22, 3-25.

Schaeffner, C. (2004) “Political Discourse Analysis from the Point of View of Translation Studies”, Journal of Language and Politics, 3(1), 117-150.

 Schaeffner, C. (1997) Analysing Political Speeches. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters.

Sosoni, V. (2016) “The Role of Language in Nation-Building within the EU: Insights from the Greek Eurolect”. In G. E.Barstad, A. Hjelde, S. Kvam, A. Parianou and J. Todd (eds.) Language and Nation: Crossroads and Connections. Münster: Waxmann.

Sosoni, V. (2015) “The Rhetoric of Othering in the Greek Parliament: representations of the Troika and the Self/Other dichotomy”. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 11(2).

Wodak, R. (1996) Disorders of Discourse, London and New York, Longman.

Wodak, R. (1989) Language, Power and Ideology- Studies in Political Discourse. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

The module takes the form of lectures but is based on interaction with students and makes use of PowerPoint presentations and online material, such as videos. Exercises are regularly given to consolidate the theoretical knowledge. The compulsory assignment assigned to postgraduate students requires a combination of theoretical knowledge, knowledge of the relevant literature and personal research. 

Use of ICT in teaching and use of corpus analysis software (AntConc. Voyant Tools)

Students are assessed throughout the semester, based on their participation in the teaching process and their response to weekly assignments. The final assessment and grading is based on a written compulsory assignment, in which students are required to apply  what they have been taught during the lectures by applying research methodology (quantitative and qualitative analysis), while they also present their work in class.