Textual Persona and Identity: PRR White’s Friday seminar slides

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Here is the PDF of the slides Peter used at the Friday seminar on October 24th, 2014, at the University of Sydney for his talk on the matter of how tenor can accommodate the concept of ‘textual persona’.

The abstract for Peter’s talk apears below:

Identity and textual persona as type-of-person effects in mass-communicative, premeditated discourse

For the purpose of this paper I take the following to be largely uncontroversial. The ways in which we speak or write, and thereby make meaning, may reveal us to be, or construct us as being, particular types of people. These “type-of-person” categorisations or effects may be matters of social conditioning associated with “class”, “gender”, “sexual orientation”, “ethnicity”, “age” and so on. They may also be matters of social role such as those of “teacher”, “student”, “doctor”, “patient” and so on. Typically in the literature, such “type-of-person” effects are dealt with by reference to a notion of discursively performed “identity”, with the understanding that communicating individuals may adopt or perform different “identities” in different settings and for different social purposes. Equally, these type-of-person effects may be viewed as matters of the various and typically transient personal and interpersonal positionings that speakers/writers may deploy – for example positionings with respect to social standing, social distancing, attitudinal investment, axiological alignment and openness to alternative viewpoints. Typically in the literature, such type-of-person effects have been dealt with via notions of textual persona,with the co-settings of these various positionings resulting in the speaker/writer coming across as being a certain type of person.

The relationshipbetween “identity” and “persona”, as so formulated, is an interesting one. While it will not be my central concern in this paper, I will be proposing that personae (as communicative effects resulting from typically transient configurations of personal and interpersonal positionings) can be understood as acting to index or possibly even to realise the social grouping or “macro” type-of-person categories (e.g. those of “class”, “gender” and so on). In this my use of these terms is different from that of Martin (2010, 2013), where textually performed “personae” are defined as subtypes of the macro social-grouping identity categories. That is to say, while under my formulation, the relationship between persona and identity is one of realisation, under Martin’s formulation it is one of “instantiation”. (I’m not yet clear as to whether this is definitional matter – the use of the same term to reference different phenomena/categories – or whether the different use of these terms amounts to different claims about the nature of textually-based type-of-person effects.)

The paper will primary be directed at discussing how persona, as a type-of-person effect, can be modelled by building on previous accounts of the parameters by which the Tenor of a text may vary. I refer here, for example, to the work of Poynton (1989) and Martin (Martin 1992) and others in proposing that the Tenor of texts varies according to settings for “status”, “contact/social distance” and “affect”, and to more recent work by Don (2012) who has proposed that it is useful to identify two further parameters of variation within “contact/social distance” – namely those of “affiliation” and “axiological alignment”. In the context of written, mass-communicative texts of the type with which I am primarily concerned here, “axiological alignment” is a matter of the degree to which the writer constructs for her/himself an “ideal” or “intended” reader who shares the writer’s beliefs and values (i.e. a “likeminded” addressee), or alternatively a reader construed as likely to be at odds with the writer. I will be proposing thatinsightful account of textual persona can follow when this model of Tenor is extended by including a reference to (1) the nature of the value positions put at risk by the text and about which writer and reader therefore potentiallyalign – for example whether it is attitudinal or epistemic; whether or not it is ideologically charged, (2) the writer’s attitudinal disposition – i.e. whether alignment is construed as a matter of Affect, Judgement or Appreciation or some mixture of these, and (3) authorial communality – the terms under which the writer puts writer-reader rapport at risk.

The application of this model of persona will be explored in the context of both journalistic opinion pieces and the many and various reader comments which are now attached to online news reports, commentary articles, personal blogs, YouTube postings, political announcements and so on.

References

Don, A. C., (2012), “Legitimating tenor relationships: Affiliation and alignment in written interaction.” Linguistics and the human sciences no. 5 (3):303-327.
Martin, J., M. Zappavigna, P. Dwyer and C. Cléirigh, (2013), “Users in uses of language: embodied identity in Youth Justice Conferencing.” Text & Talk no. 33 (4-5):467-496.
Martin, J. R., (1992), English text: System and structure: John Benjamins Publishing.
Martin, J. R., (2010), “Semantic variation: Modelling realisation, instantiation and individuation in socialsemiosis.” In New discourse on language: Functional perspectives on multimodality, identity, and affiliation, edited by Monika Bednarek and James R Martin, 1-34. London: Continuum.
Poynton, C., (1989), Language and Gender: Making the Difference: Oxford University Press.

2015 Appraisal Symposium

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it’s on again! in 2013, our very successful and FREE symposium, convened to discuss all matters appraisal-related, was held at UNSW, Sydney in late February..
..to roars of applause.

next year, 2015, we hope to reprise that success with even further debate and discussion.
please visit our dedicated website for further information.

and while you’re thinking of attending, what about coming along to the Halliday Symposium, to be held on the day before the Appraisal Symposium. this will be at Sydney University, and will cost a miniscule $40. For more details see the website and register to attend.

Emotion, Affect and Sentiment: The Language and Aesthetics of Feeling

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Title: Emotion, Affect and Sentiment
Subtitle: The Language and Aesthetics of Feeling
Series Title: Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature

Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG
http://www.narr.de/

Book URL: http://www.narr-shop.de/index.php/emotion-affect-and-sentiment.html

Editor: Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet
Editor: Andreas Langlotz

Paperback: ISBN:  9783823368892 Pages: 268 Price: Europe EURO 49.00

Abstract:

Bringing together experts from linguistics, medieval and modern literary
studies, this volume offers a transhistorical look at the language and
cultural work of emotion in a variety of written, oral and visual texts.
Contributors engage with the recent so-called affective turn, but also examine
the language and use of emotion from a variety of perspectives, touching on
issues such as Romantic and Modernist aesthetics, the history of emotions,
melodrama and the Gothic, emotional rhetoric, reception aesthetics, rudeness,
swearing and attitudes to varieties of English.

Review: Negotiating Linguistic Identity

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EDITOR: Virve-Anneli  Vihman
EDITOR: Kristiina  Praakli
TITLE: Negotiating Linguistic Identity
SUBTITLE: Language and Belonging in Europe
SERIES TITLE: Nationalisms across the Globe
PUBLISHER: Peter Lang AG
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Elizabeth Olushola Adeolu, University of Edinburgh

SUMMARY

‘Negotiating Linguistic Identity: Language and Belonging in Europe’ is a
collection of papers mostly presented at a conference on language and identity
held at the University of Tartu in Estonia in 2011 in collaboration with the
Coimbra Group, which is made up of established, European research-focused
universities. The importance of the Coimbra Group with respect to the issue of
negotiating linguistic identity is revealed  in a discussion about their
seemingly contradictory aims of shaping and promoting national identity while
at the same time promulgating international networking and relevance.

The volume is divided into three sections namely ‘Multilingualism’,
‘Self-Representation and Belonging’, and ‘Language and Policy’. The first and
second sections consist of four articles each, while the last is made up of
three articles.

Preceding the sections is an introduction by Virve-Anneli Vihman and Juegen
Barkhoff titled ‘Introduction: The Shaping of Linguistic Identity in Europe’.
Here, Vihman and Barkhoff state the aims of the Coimbra Group and note the
salient role of member universities as advocates of these aims. They also give
a brief history of language and identity, as well as that of linguistic
diversity and multilingualism in Europe, highlighting such issues as the
dichotomy between language policies promoting multilingualism, which evoke
images of equal language representation, and the reality of hegemony of
majority languages.

The first section, ‘Multilingualism’, opens with an article by Johanna Laakso
titled ‘Who Needs Karelian, Kven or Austrian Hungarian – and Why?’ Here,
Laakso looks at the issue of multilingualism from the point of view of
researches carried out by the European language Diversity for All (ELDIA)
research project. She outlines the challenges faced by the project, including
negativity attached to such terms as minority languages, variability in
fluency and use of target varieties, international mobility, and issues of
language planning and teaching. She advises that the best way to research
multilingualism would be to combine the views of language as a resource, which
speaks to the instrumental function of language, and language as a burden,
which is mostly associated with heritage languages, or so called minority
varieties.

The second article, ‘Estonian-Russian Code-Copying in Russian-Language Blogs:
Language Change and a New Kind of Linguistic Awareness’ is written by Anna
Verschik.  In this article, Verschik examined how Computer Mediated
Communication (CMC), such as emails, blogs, and text messages that take place
using two or more electronic devices, could benefit the field of contact
linguistics and multilingualism. She analysed the data from five Russian
Language blogs written by ethnic Russians living in Estonia within the
code-copying framework developed by Johanson (1993, 2002) and found that not
only were each of them consciously choosing to use Estonian expressions in
their blogs, a phenomenon that could be explained as contact-induced, but also
code-copying across the board followed the same pattern. As a result, she also
highlights the importance of focus on individuals in multilingualism studies.

The third article in this section, written by Martin Ehala and titled
‘Russian-Speakers in the Baltic Countries’, follows the history of the
relationship between language and identity of the ethnic Russian-speakers
living in the Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – from the
Soviet times till the present day.  Ehala concludes by saying that the more
the use of the state language (the majority language used in the country of
residence), the more dynamic and flexible identity is.

The final article in the section is ‘Interaction among European Languages and
German Vocabulary’, written by Bettina Bock and Rosemarie Lühr. Using German
as a case study, the chapter focuses on loan processes in European languages
and what this means for the idea of a common European identity.  Bock and Lühr
consider the use of Germanisms, loan words that have been borrowed from the
German language and used in a similar sense by at least three European
languages, and Europeanisms, which represent the converse (Bergmann 1995),
positing that this sharing of words can be exploited in forming a common
European identity.

‘Self-Representation and Belonging’, the second section in this volume, starts
with an article by John E. Joseph. The article, ‘Indexing and Interpreting
Language, Identities and Face’, centers on the complicated nature of indexing
identities and face – a role which language plays. By means of a sample
conversation analysis, Joseph underlines this difficulty of distinguishing in
linguistic analysis between face (the contact-based image an individual
projects) and identity (a more enduring sense of belonging that may encompass
what an individual or group projects and the interpretation this is given by
others). He posits that both identity and face are symbiotic concepts which
can also be seen as different outlooks on the same reality.

The second article, ‘Languages and Identities in Catalonia’ by Emili
Boix-Fuster, tackles the connection between language and identity in Catalonia
since the recovery of democracy in 1975.  He maintains that the Catalan
language and identity still enjoy prestige and the language is used in major
domains in Catalonia, in spite of the changing linguistic landscape with the
major influx of immigrants whose first language is usually Spanish, the
growing bilingualism with Spanish, and the elitism of the political leaders.
Boix-Fuster cautions though that the use of Spanish should be managed so that
Catalan does not get assimilated.

The third article, ‘Gaelic and Sorbian as Multiple Boundary Markers:
Implications of Minority Language Activism in Scotland and Lusatia’ by
Konstanze McLeod, addresses the issue of the Gaelic language and
Gaelic-related identities in Scotland; and the Sorbian language and
Sorbian-related identities in Eastern Germany.  Both languages (and
identities) erstwhile restricted to the heartland regions where they originate
and are predominantly spoken are now of more interest to and spoken, albeit
with varying degrees of proficiency, by ‘outsiders’. This spike in interest in
the Gaelic and Sorbian languages and identities is thought to have been
prompted by  the respective parent countries’ explicit promotional schemes.
McLeod concludes that this diversity in speakers and people identifying with
the language and culture is overridden by the more pressing matter of activism
for these languages in the present age.

The last article in this section, ‘The Role of Language in Estonian Identity’
by Aune Valk, gives a theoretical review using data from mostly quantitative
studies to examine the relationship between language and identity among ethnic
Russians living in Estonia, Estonians living in Estonia, and Estonians living
abroad (the last group are further subdivided into Old DiEst, those who
escaped Estonia in and around 1944 following the German occupation and their
descendants; and New DiEst, those who have left Estonia since 1991).  From the
review of the related studies, Valk finds that while proficiency in Estonian
was the major indicator of Estonian identity for the Estonians abroad,
probably because of the desire to hold on to their heritage language and
identity; unlike their counterparts in diaspora, Estonians living in Estonia
(and ethnic Russians living in Estonia who speak the language and identify
with the Estonian community) did not see language proficiency as a major
marker of Estonian identity, but cited the desire to integrate into the
Estonian community.

The third section, Language and Policy, opens with Patrick Sériot’s ‘Language
and Nation: Two Models’. In this article, Sériot delves into a historical
definition of the relationship between language and nation by two defining
approaches. The first approach, the German romantic approach, is defined as
‘naturalistic’ (p. 259) and holds the view that a nation is defined by the
language it speaks, and thus language is static and absolute. The second
approach, the French Jacobin, which Sériot describes as ‘contractualist’ (p.
259), favours the view that language does not define a nation, and language is
dynamic. Sériot sides with the latter approach with a discussion of the issues
that the approaches generate in dealing with the non-isomorphic concepts of
nation and language.

The second article by Tomasz Kamusella, titled ‘Scripts and Politics in Modern
Central Europe’, explores the issue of multiscripturalism in Central Europe.
Multiscripturalism itself refers to “the use of two or more scripts when
writing in a polity or territory” p. 273. Kamusella charts the history of
scripting in Europe to the present day when the majority of Europe is
monoscriptural and multiscripturalism is the preserve of Central Europe where
Latin, Cyrillic and Greek are used. He ends by stressing the importance of
multiscripturalism in providing access to more information and being a tool
that can be employed in politics in Europe, for better or worse.

The last article in this section is by John Walsh. The article, ‘Pushing an
Open Door? Aspects of Language Policy at an Irish University’, dwells on the
Irish language policy at the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway,
within the framework of the Official Language Act (OLA). Walsh examines the
implementation of the NUI’s language policy which supports the OLA’s
obligations, one of which Walsh focused his research on. This obligation was
the bilingual presentation of signage and stationery in a particular manner.
He looked at the implementation of this obligation at the NUI and also
students’ attitudes to that and other aspects of NUI language policy. His
findings point to the importance of universities’ support of the OLA through
their language policy, especially as the results he found were favourable in
every regard.

EVALUATION

This volume is useful for anyone interested in historical linguistics,
multilingualism, language and identity, and language policy and planning. In
spite of the fact that the volume is Europe-focused, the issues it tackles are
generalisable.

The volume is also valuable in the sense of incorporating diverse approaches
to the examination of the issues discussed. Not only were there empirical and
theoretical approaches, but it was also refreshing to see multilingualism and
identity discussed from the non-traditional point of view of Computer Mediated
Communication, as in Verschik’s ‘Estonian-Russian Code-Copying in Russian
Language Blogs: Language Change and a New Kind of Linguistic Awareness’.

As a whole, the articles were cohesive, as they all touched on the central
theme of negotiating linguistic identity in Europe.  But, the sections
‘Multilingualism’ and ‘Self-Representation and Belonging’ had less coherence
than the section on ‘Language and Policy’. The majority of articles in the
former sections could easily fit either section; this defeats the purpose of
the division into sections in the first place. Indeed, it seemed that the
first two sections were named after the major issue in the first articles of
each of the sections.

Another issue that was disappointing but understandable (given  publishing
deadlines and the undesirability of rushing research analysis) was the issue
of incomplete research results presented  in two of the articles – Laakso’s
‘Who Needs Karelian, Kven or Austrian Hungarian – and Why?’ (p. 52); and
Ehala’s ‘Russian-Speakers in the Baltic Countries’ (p. 94).  It would have
been interesting and probably more meaningful to have the full results in the
volume, but such an omission  is not unusual.

Potential for future research was indicated by  some of the articles in the
volume. One of such articles is Verschik’s ‘Estonian-Russian Code-Copying in
Russian Language Blogs: Language Change and a New Kind of Linguistic
Awareness’ which indicates the need for more research into CMC. Likewise,
Kamusella’s theoretical take on the issue of multiscripturalism and its effect
on politics in ‘Scripts and Politics in Modern Central Europe’ seems to be a
good foundation for further empirical studies.

Overall, the volume  is a good reference book that makes for an interesting
and multi-dimensional study on familiar linguistic topics.

REFERENCES

Bergman, Rolf. 1995. ‘Europsmus’ and ‘Internationalismus’. Zur Lexikologischen
Terminologie [‘Europeanism’ and ‘internationalism’. On Lexicological
Terminology]. Sprachwissenschaft 20. 239-277.

Johanson, Lars. 1993. Code-Copying in Immigrant Turkish. In Guus Extra and
Ludo Verhoeven (eds). Immigrant Languages in Europe. 197 — 221.
Clevedon/Philadelphia/Adelaide: Multilingual Matters.

Johanson, Lars. 2002. Structural Factors in Turkic Language Contacts. London:
Curzon.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Elizabeth Olushola Adeolu is a Ph.D. candidate of Linguistics and English
Language at the University of Edinburgh,  U.K. Her research interests include
such sociolinguistic and socio-phonetic areas as Dialect features, World
Englishes, Identity, Language Endangerment, language Attitudes and
Perceptions, Pidgins and Creoles. Her current research work is on attitudes
and perceptions of exonormative varieties by ESL speakers.

Book: The Language of War Monuments

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Title: The Language of War Monuments
Series Title: Bloomsbury Semiotics

Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Book URL: http://bloomsbury.com/the-language-of-war-monuments-9781474224208/

Author: David Machin
Author: Gill Abousnnouga

Paperback: ISBN:  9781474224208 Pages: 248 Price: U.K. £ 24.99

Abstract:

This book analyses war monuments by developing a multimodal social-semiotic approach to understand how they communicate as three-dimensional objects. The book provides a practical tool-kit approach to how critical multimodal social semiotics should be done through visual, textual and material analysis. It ties this material analysis into the social and political contexts of production. Using examples across the 20th and 21st century the book’s chapters offer a way of analysing the way that monument designers have used specific semiotic choices in terms of things like iconography, objects, shape, form, angularity, height, materials and surface realisation to place representations of war in public places across Britain.

This social-semiotic approach to the study of war monuments serves three innovative purposes. First, it provides a contribution to the work on the ideological representations of war in Media and Cultural Studies and in Critical Discourse Analysis applied specifically to more banal realisations of discourse. Second, it responds to calls by historians for innovative ways to study war commemoration by providing an approach that offers both specific analysis of the objects and attends to matters of design. Thirdly, following in the relatively recent tradition of multimodal analysis, the arguments draw on the ideas of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996, 2001), adapting and extending their theories and models to the analysis of British commemorative war monuments, in order to develop a multimodal framework for the analysis of three dimensional objects.

Book: Retranslation

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Title: Retranslation
Subtitle: Translation, Literature, and Reinterpretation
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Book URL: http://bloomsbury.com/retranslation-9781441147349/

Author: Sharon Deane-Cox

Electronic: ISBN:  9781472585080 Pages: 256 Price: U.K. £ 74.99
Hardback: ISBN:  9781441147349 Pages: 224 Price: U.K. £ 75.00

Abstract:

Retranslation is a phenomenon which gives rise to multiple translations of a particular work. But theoretical engagement with the motivations and outcomes of retranslation often falls short of acknowledging the complex nature of this repetitive process, and reasoning has so far been limited to considerations of progress, updating and challenge; there is even less in the way of empirical study.

This book seeks to redress the balance through its case studies on the initial translations and retranslations of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Sand’s pastoral tale La Mare au diable within the British literary context. What emerges is a detailed exposition of how and why these works have been retold, alongside a critical re-evaluation of existing lines of enquiry into retranslation. A flexible methodology for the study of retranslations is also proposed which draws on Systemic Functional Grammar, narratology, narrative theory and genetic [sic] criticism.

Book: Systemic Phonology Recent Studies in English

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Systemic Phonology

Recent Studies in English

Edited by Wendy Bowcher and Bradley Smith

HB 9781845539399   £85

PB 9781845539467   £30

460pp

Series: Functional Linguistics, edited by Robin Fawcett

Receive 25% off the retail price when ordering from the book page quoting the discount code LINGUISTICS2014 (valid until the end of 2014).

https://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=479

This is the first volume in more than twenty years dedicated solely to Systemic Phonology.  It presents twelve original contributions by leading scholars and contains both theoretical and applied studies. The collection includes analyses of a wide-range of texts including news readings, literary classics, classroom discourse, and sung texts. Amongst the theoretical contributions is a chapter which outlines the generative model of intonation and punctuation of the Cardiff School of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The volume closes with an interactive chapter where readers can listen to, read, and obtain a first-hand guided experience of analysing texts using the Systemic model of intonation.

Systemic Phonology: Recent Studies in English is of value to scholars and students of phonology, phonetics, music studies, semiotics, and media studies, particularly within the Systemic Functional tradition. This volume is also of interest to any researchers analysing meaning in relation to sound and music.

Book: Multimodal Teaching and Learning

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Title: Multimodal Teaching and Learning
Subtitle: The Rhetorics of the Science Classroom
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Book URL: http://bloomsbury.com/multimodal-teaching-and-learning-9781472522719/

Editor: Gunther Kress
Editor: Carey Jewitt
Editor: Jon Ogborn
Editor: Tsatsarelis Charalampos

Electronic: ISBN:  9781472571052 Pages: 208 Price: U.K. £ 14.99
Paperback: ISBN:  9781472522719 Pages: 248 Price: U.K. £ 14.99

Abstract:

This book takes a radically different look at communication, and in doing so presents a series of challenges to accepted views on language, on communication, on teaching and, above all, on learning.

Drawing on extensive research in science classrooms, it presents a view of communication in which language is not necessarily communication – image, gesture, speech, writing, models, spatial and bodily codes. The action of students in learning is radically rethought: all participants in communication are seen as active transformers of the meaning resources around them, and this approach opens a new window on the processes of learning.

Book: Antagonism on Youtube

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Title: Antagonism on Youtube
Subtitle: Metaphor in Online Discourse
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Book URL: http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/antagonism-on-youtube-9781472566690/

Author: Stephen Pihlaja

Electronic: ISBN:  9781472566690 Pages: 192 Price: U.K. £ 74.99 Comment: PDF: 8/28/2014
Electronic: ISBN:  9781472566683 Pages: 192 Price: U.K. £ 74.99 Comment: EPUB: 9/11/2014
Hardback: ISBN:  9781472566676 Pages: 192 Price: U.K. £ 75.00 Comment: 10/23/2014

Abstract:

Similar to many sites on the Internet, interaction on YouTube often features confrontational, antagonistic exchanges among users. YouTube comments threads in particular are known for their offensive, conflagratory content. This books looks at this form of discourse. The term ‘drama’ (or ‘flame wars’) appears often as a label for a phenomenon that is easily recognisable. In these cases, serious disagreements can become entangled with interpersonal relationships and users take positions for themselves in relation to others and social controversies.

The focus of this book is on the ways in which metaphor contributes to the development of Internet drama, particularly on YouTube. Although a growing body of research into YouTube social interaction continues to develop descriptions of user experience on YouTube, empirical studies of the YouTube video page are rare, as well as close discourse analysis of user interaction on the site. This research specifically focuses on the interaction of a group of users discussing issues of Christian theology and atheism on the site, analysing how discourse facilitates to antagonistic interaction among users.

Since YouTube drama occurs publicly, the book focuses on actual YouTube video pages rather than user reports of their actions and responses. It investigates how and why YouTube drama develops through a systematic description and analysis of user discourse activity. Through close analysis of video pages, this study contributes to a greater academic understanding of Internet antagonism and YouTube interaction by revealing the factors which contribute to the development of drama over time.

Book: Circus as Multimodal Discourse

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Title: Circus as Multimodal Discourse
Subtitle: Performance, Meaning, and Ritual
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Book URL: http://bloomsbury.com/uk/circus-as-multimodal-discourse-9781472569479/

Author: Paul Bouissac

Paperback: ISBN:  9781472569479 Pages: 224 Price: U.K. £ 24.99

Abstract:

Now available in paperback, this volume presents a theory of the circus as a secular ritual and introduces a method to analyze its performances as multimodal discourse.

The book’s chapters cover the range of circus specialties (magic, domestic and wild animal training, acrobatics, and clowning) and provide examples to show how cultural meaning is produced, extended and amplified by circus performances. Bouissac is one of the world’s leading authorities on circus ethnography and semiotics and this work is grounded on research conducted over a 50 year span in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.

It concludes with a reflection on the potentially subversive power of this discourse and its contemporary use by activists. Throughout, it endeavours to develop an analytical approach that is mindful of the epistemological traps of both positivism and postmodernist license. It brings semiotics and ethnography to bear on the realm of the circus.

[Not to be confused with Multimodal Discourse As Circus]

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