Volume 10, December 2015, Pages 45–52
Highlights
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- I investigated 30 example texts of a newspaper political commentary column.
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- I explore how the writer, Toynbee, critiqued the ideology of neoliberalism.
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- Her opposition encompassed two broad themes-the shrinking state and inequality.
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- Advocacy of social justice was another important theme.
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- A complex range of macro- and micro-level textual devices create the critique.
Abstract
In
this genre-based study I examined the discursive enactment of
resistance to neoliberal ideology through the writing of Polly Toynbee
in her regular commentary column in the Guardian newspaper. Using my social genre/cognitive genre model as the analytical framework ( Bruce, 2008a),
I examined a sample of 30 examples of Toynbee׳s column in terms of the
knowledge elements of context, epistemology, writer stance, content
structuring and cognitive genres (text types). I found that, Toynbee׳s
challenge to neoliberalism is two-pronged, involving the use of key
generic elements to communicate themes that broadly fall within the
areas of critique of the neoliberal shrinking of the state and advocacy
of policy alternatives to strengthen social democracy and help the
disadvantaged. Concerned with the embedded nature of neoliberalism in
the British national psyche, which is reinforced by the powerful media
organs, Toynbee, through her column presents a forceful, vigorous
challenge to this prevailing ideology, a challenge achieved through a
complex, discourse-constructing task. That complexity is revealed by the
genre analysis undertaken here.
Keywords
- Neoliberalism;
- Text;
- Discourse;
- Ideology;
- Social genre;
- Cognitive genre
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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