Discourse and Political Culture
The language of the Third Way in Germany and the UK
Author
This book presents a new approach to comparative politico-linguistic discourse analysis. It takes a transdisciplinary stance and combines analytical tools from linguistic discourse analysis (keywords, metaphors, argumentation, genre) and political science (political culture, comparative politics, ideologies). It is comprehensive in its introduction of approaches from the German tradition of politico-linguistics. This tradition has not, thus far, been accessible to a non-German speaking readership and hence the volume adds insights into the mechanics of political discourse from a diverse set of viewpoints.
The book analyses the modernisation discourses in social democratic parties in Britain and Germany between 1994 and 2003, a project that was named ‘Third Way’. It demonstrates how political language and political culture are related and how politicians will adapt a global ideology to local political circumstances in order to convince the electorate. At the same time, the book presents new insights into the German political culture and the version of Third Way discourses in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) under the leadership of Gerhard Schröder which have played a key role in shaping current political discourse in Germany. It concludes with a model for the study of political discourse which makes the work relevant to scholars in Social Sciences and beyond.
The book analyses the modernisation discourses in social democratic parties in Britain and Germany between 1994 and 2003, a project that was named ‘Third Way’. It demonstrates how political language and political culture are related and how politicians will adapt a global ideology to local political circumstances in order to convince the electorate. At the same time, the book presents new insights into the German political culture and the version of Third Way discourses in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) under the leadership of Gerhard Schröder which have played a key role in shaping current political discourse in Germany. It concludes with a model for the study of political discourse which makes the work relevant to scholars in Social Sciences and beyond.
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 86] 2019. xviii, 298 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | pp. xvii–xviii
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List of tables | pp. xi–xii
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List of figures | pp. xiii–xiv
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List of abbreviations | pp. xv–xvi
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Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–8
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Chapter 2. Elements of Comparative Politico-Linguistic Discourse Analysis | pp. 9–30
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Chapter 3. Contexts of the Third Way in Germany and the UK | pp. 31–68
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Chapter 4. Texts in context: Register and genre in the discourses of the Third Way | pp. 69–100
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Chapter 5. Lexical strategies in the discourses of the Third Way | pp. 101–168
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Chapter 6. The argumentative structure of party-political discourse in the discourses of ‘new Labour’ and ‘Die Neue Mitte’ | pp. 169–206
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Chapter 7. New politics, new metaphor? | pp. 207–248
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Chapter 8. Conclusions: Political cultures and the political discourses | pp. 249–264
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Appendix: Short Biographies of Political Actors | pp. 265–268
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References | pp. 269–292
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Name index | pp. 293–294
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Subject index | pp. 295–298
“This book presents an innovative linguistic approach to compare the political discourses and cultures of Germany and the UK. Taking into consideration the different political contexts throughout the discussion of the Third Way discourses, it should appeal to a broad audience from linguists to social and political scientists.”
Martin Wengeler, Universität Trier
“Kranert’s study represents an important contribution to comparative political discourse analysis, combining approaches from different research traditions and offering an in-depth analysis that covers context, genre, argumentation strategies and linguistic features alike. While the study and its findings are of clear historical interest, the model of political discourse analysis that Kranert develops is applicable to a broad range of present and future contexts.”
Veronika Koller, University of Lancaster
“Kranert's study shows in convincing and very valuable ways how the contexts of different political cultures shape respective discourses and what linguistic analyses can contribute to comparative studies of polity and politics.”
Melani Schroeter, University of Reading, in Journal of Pragmatics 164 (2020).
“Kranert’s well written analysis offers interesting findings concerning the ‘Third Way’-discourse in general as well as theoretical implications for future research. [...] Kranert’s book thus poses a valuable contribution and will hopefully stimulate further research at the intersection of linguistics and political science.”
Luis Illan, Universität Regensburg, in Journal of Language and Politics 19:6 (2020)
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Subjects
Communication Studies
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009030: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Pragmatics