Discursive Strategies

'Discursive strategies' are powerful attitude-shaping techniques used by journalist and other media that escape the notice of most of us. I have been amazed at the political usage of this in America for many years now. I quote a professor's message, regarding this, below. nekkid


"Jonathan Hall's two books on ethnicity in antiquity are splendid, but
also a bit hard to teach. This is not because Hall's argumentation
is loose -- it's not -- but because he uses some concepts and terms
that college sophomores find novel and a bit alien.
"An example: chapter three of _Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity_ (a
book reviewed by a procession of heavyweights in Cambridge
Archaeological Journal, 1998, but completely unreviewed at
Amazon.com). Hall builds his case, that Greek ethnic thought in the
fifth century was oppositional or dyadic, on a series of oppositions
or dyads, one of which is 'historical positivism' vs. 'discursive
strategies.' The students I saw yesterday rolled their eyes at the
second term, but were completely unable to say what it might mean.

"All that changed when they started thinking about the sports pages.
Until this week, the noun perhaps most often associated with Bill
Belichick, football coach of the New ENgland Patriots, was 'genius.'
The pairing has occurred at least 60x in the NYT since 1987. But now
we know Belichick cheated.

"The 'genius' label was perhaps justified. But it was a discursive
phenomenon, perhaps a 'strategy,' fostered by the press. So much so
that for many American football fans, the word 'genius' came to mind
at once on hearing Belichick's name. With this in mind, students had
a much easier time returning to Jonathan Hall's case that myths of
ethnic formation were just that, myths, and elements in the
discursive strategy that shaped Athenian and Spartan thinking about
their pasts.
Best,
Dan Tompkins" [pericles@TEMPLE.EDU]