Магистратура
2023/2024
Критический анализ текста
Статус:
Курс обязательный (Критические медиаисследования / Critical media studies)
Направление:
42.04.05. Медиакоммуникации
Кто читает:
Институт медиа
Где читается:
Факультет креативных индустрий
Когда читается:
2-й курс, 1 модуль
Формат изучения:
без онлайн-курса
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Преподаватели:
Байша Ольга Анатольевна
Прогр. обучения:
Критические медиаисследования
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
3
Контактные часы:
28
Course Syllabus
Abstract
“Critical Text Analysis” course is designed to provide students with an intensive exposure to the theory and practice of textual analysis as utilized in critical media studies. The course is located within the broader tradition of social constructivism, which postulates that any linguistic representation of material reality is not objective truth but a product of discursive categorizations, all of which are historically and culturally specific, and thus contingent.
In the first part of the course (Module 2), students will be introduced to the basic techniques of text analysis by means of which researchers gather information and make an educated guess of how human beings make sense of the world. Students will learn that “text” is something we make meaning of and that different cultures make sense of the world in different ways. They will also discover that researchers engaged in textual analysis practice different methodologies, some of which are incompatible – both ontologically and epistemologically. Students will explore differences between three research paradigms – realist, structuralist, and post-structuralist – all of which may inform critical textual studies. During this introductory part of the course, students will learn the basics of framing analysis and the foundations of structuralist and post-structuralists perspectives, as represented in the works of Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, and Michel Foucault.
In the second part of the course (Module 3), students will be introduced to the basics of Discourse Theory (DT) developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. This theory considers discourses from macro-textual and macro-contextual perspectives. In contrast to many other theories of discourse whose focus is on linguistic analysis of micro-contextual situations, DT considers discursive formations at the ideological and societal levels. Originally developed in their volume Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (HSS), DT postulates that social reality is only possible on the condition of “discursivity,” where discourse is understood as a “social fabric” on which social actors occupy different positions. Articulated through both linguistic and non-linguistic elements, discourse appears as a real force that contributes to the formation and constitution of social relations.
During this course, students will have an opportunity to trace the development of DT, starting from the seminal works of Michel Foucault (Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality) and finishing with the latest works by contemporary scholars such as Benjamin DeCleen, Jason Glynos, Sean Phelan, Nico Carpentier, etc.
This is the final part of the bigger course “Critical Text Analysis,” in which students have been introduced to the intellectual history of critical text studies and acquainted with three dominant paradigms of analyzing texts: realist/essentialist, structuralist, and post-structuralist. Students have been assisted in learning how, drawing on different research traditions, to analyze complex social texts of globalized/post-modern contemporaneity. During this final part of the course, students will have a chance to apply theoretical knowledge, obtained through previous three modules, to the practical task of evaluating critically the academic texts of their peers. Through critical reviewing of their peers’ works, students will get a chance to suggest alternative perspectives that might help authors to look at their intellectual creations from unfamiliar points of view, to destabilize taken-for-granted assumptions, and broaden intellectual horizons.