Loss of Agency among Volunteers in Intangible Cultural Heritage: a discursive analytical approach文献综述

 2022-08-11 15:24:02

2. Literature Review

2. 1 Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis focuses on how people draw on knowledge about language to do things like exchanging information, expressing feelings, making things happen and so on, and this knowledge goes further as it can be stated as rules. Discourse is both the source of this knowledge and the result of it, and analysis refers to a method by examining aspects of the function and structure of language in use (Johnstone 2017:2-3).

Foucault(1991) is concerned with the power and knowledge relationships in discourse. He provides that knowledge is a technique of power, and it is through the discourse that power can be reflected and exerted and meanwhile discourse again shapes realities. However, one of the criticisms of Foucaultrsquo;s idea about discourse is that it does not provide an approachable methodology for discourse analysis.

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) meets the shortage of Foucaultrsquo;s ideas. CDA is the study about “how power relations are exercised and negotiated in discourse”(Fairclough and Wodak, 1997:272). One of the central concepts in CDA is the term ideology. Ideology refers to ideas and values that reflect particular interests of the powerful, and the aim of CDA is to draw out these ideologies that might be buried in texts (David, 2012:25). By analyzing linguistic elements of news texts, speech, interviewing texts, Critical Discourse Analysts are able to reveal the power and ideology that are embedded in the texts.

David(2012) looks at some of the tools offered by CDA and gives examples to explain how linguistic choices can make differences in conveying ideology and exercising power. The author summarizes the methodology of CDA as below:

  1. The author considers basic lexical analysis of texts which simply means what kind of words are used, and moves on to look at how lexical choices can indicate different genres of communication. The first includes word connotations, overlexicalization or excessive description that indicates a sense of over-persuasion and is normally evidence that something is problematic or of ideological contention(David, 2012:37), suppression or lexical absence, and structural opposition which causes “ideological squaring”(Van Dijk, 1998). The second refers to that authors can use lexical choices to convey levels of authority. This can be achieved by using different number of informal lexical choices and formal lexical choices, whereby the former one serves to provide authority and the latter one suggests equality.
  2. Then the author deals with semiotic resources for representing the attitudes of speakers by analyzing quoting verbs. Verbs can be breakdown into neutral structuring verbs which introduce a saying without evaluating it(e.g. ask, say, tell), metapropositional verbs which represent the authorrsquo;s interpretation of a speaker(e.g. declare, claim, grumble), descriptive verbs which categorize the interaction(e.g. whisper, laugh) and so on. Quoting verse can make participants appear more authoritative or subservient, legitimate or non-legitimate, and indicate participantsrsquo; attitudes toward others.
  3. The author also looks at the linguistic semiotic resources for representing people by looking at whether participants are individualized or collectivized(consider participants as individuals can allow us to feel empathy and humanize the group), made specific or generic, nominated or functionalized(functionalisation sounds more official and legitimate whereas nomination is more personal), made pronoun or noun(pronouns can be used to align readers alongside or against particular ideas), objectivated(participants can be reduced to some features and can often be found in ideological squaring), anonymized, aggregated(where numbers are replaced by abstraction) and suppressed(some important things are missing in the text) and so on.
  4. Later the author deals with the linguistic semiotic resources for representing what people do through the study of transitivity. As defined by David(2012), transitivity is the study of what people are depicted as doing and refers to who does what to whom and how. The author deals with metaphorical tropes in discourse. When doing transitivity analysis of a clause three aspects of meaning are attached with importance — participants(doers), processes(represented by verbs) and circumstances(adverbial groups or prepositional phrases). In terms of processes, Halliday distinguishes six types, which are material, mental, behavioral, verbal, relational and existential. Material process is the process of doing. Two key participants in it are the actor and the goal. Participant processes can have actors only, and by making the sentence into a passive role it can have goals only. From this process, readers can get a clear picture of who is active or passive. Mental processes are processes of sensing and are divided in to cognition (e.g. think, know, understand), affection (e.g. like, fear), and perception (see, hear, perceive). Participants in the mental processes are usually the reflector of some actions. Relational processes encode meaning (e.g. mean, define, symbolize, refer to, represent, have). This may turn opinions into facts. Existential processes refer to something exists or happens (e.g. There was an attack). Existential processes turn a verb into a noun, thus may obscure agency and responsibility.
  5. Nominalization and presupposition are also dealt with in language. Nominalization is the process whereby verbs are replaced by nouns, and this can obscure who, where and when of the verb processes. Presupposition is a skillful way whereby speakers can convey their ideology without being contested. They are two strategies of concealment.
  6. Finally modality and hedging in texts are dealt with. Modality is about commitment to levels of truth in language and hedging is the use of language features that allow a speaker to avoid being specific. Modality can be distinguished into three classes, as epistemic modality shows how certain a person is about something will happen(e.g. be going to do, may), deontic modality is about compelling and instructing others(e.g. must, should, may), dynamic modality is related to ability(e.g. can). High modality can express a high level of certainty that can be used to convince people, whereas lower modality may allow a person to appear sincere. Fairclough(2003:166) points out that modality textures identities.Therefore, the use of modals can also show how much power and the knowledge held by the author. Hedging can be used to create ambiguity with claims and distant oneself from what is said.

2.2 Discourse of Heritage

Laurajane(2006:1) gives out the definition of heritage as “Heritage wasnrsquo;t only about the past or just about material things, heritage was also a process of engagement, an act of communication and an act of making meaning in and for the present.” The quality of that heritage is about the process of engagement, communication and making meaning allows it to become a discursive site where different groups of people can compete for their own agenda. In the studies of the relationship between heritage conservation and different parties, scholars have found that heritage conservation has become implement for various parties in Hong Kong(Lu 2014:258). It is used as a tool against the economic development model, as a legitimised public domain to defend democracy, as an approach to resist Sinicisation, and as an implement to fight against the private property owners and the government(Lu 2014:268). The case of Ping Shan Heritage Trail has also shown that heritage preservation can be turned into a political arena where different individuals and groups were involved and competed for their own agenda(Cheung 2003:7).

In terms of discursive studies on heritage, many scholars have criticized and called it hegemonic. For instance, Laurajane Smith points out that there is a hegemonic Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD), which only reflects elitesrsquo; values, naturalizes conservative practices and is reliant on power and knowledge(Laurajane 2006:11). Through fieldwork and discourse analysis of political documents of Chizhou NuoXi, it is found that practitioners, and scholars of cultural studies have lost their voice in safeguarding NuoXi while government officials and merchants are mainly in dominance in its discourse(Li Jing 2018:65-73). Waterton et al.(2006) also apply methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis in the discursive site Burra Charter. By exploring the dialogicality of the texts, that is, to what extent the texts express a willingness to interact or negotiate through the analysis of vocabulary, modality, subject positioning, social relations and assessment of claims of inevitability, the authors conclude that social inclusion and plurality in heritage are placed within a dominated and authoritative discourse. By giving a discourse analysis of the nominations and responses to the nominations of France and Austria to inscribe their respective elements of classical horsemanship on the Representative List, Sargent (2016) suggests that there is an authorized ICH discourse which is a counterweight to the Euro-centric AHD. The authorized ICH discourse represents a backlash against European heritage, and making ICH rife with regional politics and bound up with national identity. The author thus provides that this authorized discourse on ICH has failed to alter AHD.

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