Analyzing Everyday Texts

In Analyzing Everyday Texts, author Glenn F. Stillar provides a comprehensive and well-illustrated framework for the analysis of everyday texts by outlining and integrating three different perspectives: discoursal, rhetorical, and social. First, the tools of each perspective are carefully explicated in chapters on the resources of discoursal, rhetorical, and social theory. These three perspectives are then brought together in extensive analyses of various everyday texts. Finally, the book reflects on the principles and consequences of conducting theoretically informed critical textual analysis. For researchers analyzing everyday texts and for scholars teaching theories and methods of analysis, Analyzing Everyday Texts will be an invaluable addition to the current literature.

Increasingly, scholars in language studies, sociology, media studies, cultural studies, communication, and other disciplines are turning to the analysis of everyday texts to understand how they shape and are shaped by social relationships, structures, and systems in various communities. Analyzing Everyday Texts provides a comprehensive and well-illustrated framework for the analysis of everyday texts by outlining and integrating three different perspectives: discoursal, rhetorical, and social. First, the tools of each perspective are carefully explicated in chapters on the resources of discoursal, rhetorical, and social theory. These three perspectives are then brought together in extensive analyses of various everyday texts. Finally, the book examines on the principles and consequences of conducting theoretically informed critical textual analysis. This book will be a valuable resource for researchers analyzing everyday texts and for scholars teaching theories and methods of analysis.

Text and Practices provides an essential introduction to the theory and practice of Critical Discourse Analysis. Using insights from this challenging new method of linguiistic analysis, the contributors to this text reveal the ways in whcih language can be used as a means of social control. The essays in Text and Practices: * demonstrate how critical discourse analysis can be applied to a variety of written and spoken texts * deconstruct data from a range of contexts, countries and spheres * expose hidden patterns of discrimination and inequalities of power Texts and Practices, which includes specially commissioned papers from a range of distinguished authors, provides a state-of-the-art introduction to critical discourse analysis. As such it represents an important contribution to this developing field and an essential text for all advanced students of language, media and cultural studies.

How has Judith Butler’s writing contributed to thought in the Social Sciences and the Humanities? The participants in this project draw on various aspects of Butler’s conceptual work and they question how it has opened up the possibilities of thought in areas of study as diverse as theatre studies, education and narrative therapy. In a format that demands careful listening and response, the scholars in this book interact with Butler, her writing, and each other. Within this dynamic space they take up Butler’s body of work and carry it in new and exciting directions. Their conversations and writing are, in turn, funny, exciting, surprising and moving.

Provides an introduction to analysing media texts. This book with its award winning DVD, helps students learn how to do semiotic, genre and narrative analysis, content and discourse analysis, and engage with debates about the politics of representation.

This book, written in an accessible style and illustrated with drawings by the author and with many other images, discusses the basic principles of discourse theory and applies them to various aspects of popular culture, media and everyday life. Among the topics it analyzes are speed dating, advertising, jokes, language use, myths, fairy tales and material culture.

`Alan McKee presents a student friendly introduction to the analysis of cultural texts. The book highlights the cultural differences in interpretation with an array of fascinating examples. Textual Analysis is written in an accessible style with several useful case studies. Each chapter also includes exercises for classroom′ - Jane Stokes, London Metropolitan University `McKee is a gifted practitioner of the skills he would teach in this book, as well as a lively and engaging writer and one who has a real commitment to making his ideas available to a larger public′ - Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology This book provides an indispensable basic introduction to textual analysis. McKee starts from the most basic philosophical foundations that underlie the practice and explains why texts are important and what they tell us about the world they represent. Textual Analysis guides students away from finding the `correct′ interpretation of a text and explains why we can′t simply ask audiences about the interpretations they make of texts. Textual Analysis: - points to the importance of context, genre and modality - uses excellent examples drawn from popular culture - provides students with a solid grounding on many of the important concepts underlying media and cultural studies Written in an accessible and straightforward style Textual Analysis: A Beginners Guide will be essential reading for all students of media, cultural and communication studies.