An Introduction to Discourse Analysis with Prof. Dr. Farish Noor

Short Course Summary:

An Introduction to Discourse Analysis

This is a short introductory course that aims to give participants an introduction to, and understanding of, Discourse Analysis as it was developed by the Essex School of Discourse Analysis.

The course is open to anyone who may be interested, but it does involve substantial reading.

Those who wish to attend are welcomed to do so, though we hope that you will attend all the sessions.

Discourse Analysis can be described as a ‘linguistic mapping tool’ that can be used to explain and analyse the workings of language in a myriad of domains - from politics to media to popular culture and entertainment.

It should be noted, however, that there are many schools/variants of discourse analysis, and this course will look at the Essex school of discourse analysis as developed by Ernesto Laclau.

It is also important to note that discourse analysis should not be confused with content analysis, thematic analysis, or other tools of linguistic analysis.

It is fundamentally a descriptive tool, and is not in any way related to the fields of psychology.

Nor is it a prescriptive tool that can be used to recommend particular kinds of language use.

Those who choose to take the course are not required to have prior knowledge of philosophy or linguistics, though the course will focus heavily on the works of several philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Ferdinand de Saussure, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The main focus of our readings will be the works of Wittgenstein, in particular the Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations.

Reading materials will be provided for all the sessions.

There will be no formal assessments/tests for this course.

Host or Publisher International Movement for a Just World