Multimodal Legitimation: Understanding and Analysing Political and Cultural Discourse(Routledge Critical Studies in Discourse)

This volume meditates on the various meanings of legitimation and expands on the notion that language can be used to gain or preserve it by demonstrating the added impact of other modes in specific examples of political and institutional discourse. The book draws on a multilayered framework that builds on and integrates work from both critical discourse analysis and social semiotic traditions, as well as the work of philosophers such as Habermas, Weber, and Rousseau, to show how it might be applied in practice to analyse and understand myriad forms of discourse. The volume focuses on examples from political campaign spots, which highlight various modes, including images, film, oratory, and color, but are also of global relevance and scale, highlighting their unique and complex position at the nexus between legitimation and multimodality. Offering a new analytical framework for understanding legitimation across a range of discursive contexts, this book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in discourse analysis, multimodality, political science, psychology, design, and education.

Table of Contents:
Contents List of figures Formal acknowledgments INTRODUCTION 1. LEGITIMATION AND MULTIMODALITY IN DISCOURSE: KEY FIGURES AND CONCEPTS Aristotle Bourdieu Foucault Latour Orwell and Chomsky Critical Discourse Analysis ~ Critical Discourse Studies Van Dijk Van Leeuwen 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Introduction Analytical Gap Blending Theoretical Approaches Theoretical Framework Key Notions and Terms 3: LEGITIMATION Introduction Rationality Rationality and Legitimation Dichotomies and Dualisms Irrationality Irrationality and Legitimation Legitimating the Irrational Rationality and Legitimation in Romanticism Rationality and Legitimation in Modernism Mythology and Legitimation Technology and Legitimation 4: LEGITIMATION, MODE, GENRE, AND CONTEXT: THE COMPLEXITY OF THE POLITICAL AD The Transferability of the Arts Dada and Surrealism: Their Politics and Paradoxical Legacy The Russian Avant-Garde, Eisenstein and Soviet cinema Adorno, Eisler, and the De-legitimation of Mass Cultural Products Inverted Modal Salience and Music Introduction Genre of Political Ads Legitimation by the Multimodal Affordances of a Speech ‘Yes We Can’ (2008) Multimodal Re-contextualisation in a Supporting Role Legitimation through Genres Background ‘Don’t Vote Alone’ (2008) Legitimation through Multimodally Realised Genre and Register Legitimation and Semiotic Simultaneity Background ‘Don’t Know Much’ (2008) Legitimation through Semiotic Simultaneity Conclusion 5: NATURALLY Introduction Persuasion, Naturalisation, and Bourdieu The Expedience of Uncertainty ‘Daisy’ (1964): Emotional Advertising Unmodern Resonances Children in/as Nature Children and Politicians Children and Innocence ‘Icecream’ (1964): Protecting Childhood ‘Dangerous World’ (2000), ‘Changing World’ (2004), and ‘Ashley’s Story’ (2004): Childhood Threatened Deciphering the Body Child as Savage ‘Poverty’ (1964), ‘The Threat’ (1996): Childhood Changed Metaphorical Nature ‘Victory’ (2004) Metaphor and Multimodality ‘Bear’ (1984) ‘Wolves’ (2004) ‘Polar Bears’ (2008) and ‘Wolves (II)’ (2008) Nature as Environment ‘Orbiting’ (1984) ‘National Parks’ (1956) ‘Harbor’ (1988) and ‘Bay’ (1988) ‘Matters’ (2000) Theoretical Framework Applied ‘The Threat’ (1996), Dole ‘Matters’ (2000), Gore Typology 6: SELLING SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE Introduction ‘Two Futures’ (2013) Legitimation and National Identity Analysis Multimodal Resources Pragma-strategic Level Justificatory Schema Legitimation as a Process Legitimation as a Quality Discourse-Historical Moral Evaluation 7. LEGITIMATION IN OTHER DISCIPLINES AND CONTEXTS Cartography Communication with Hazard Maps in Central America Organization and Management Studies The Law Critical Legal Studies The Heat of Passion Doctrine ‘Adequate Provocation’ and the ‘Reasonable Man’ Fear, Anger, and Agency Incitation Ad: ‘Willie Horton’, Hate as strategy Literature ‘Measure for Measure’: Legitimation and the Law Literature = Legitimate? Art Art and Value Art and the Body 8. TRUTH AND LEGITIMATION Truth and Expertise Truth, Truths, and Lies Free Speech, ‘Safe Spaces’, Algorithms and Echo Chambers POSTSCRIPT

About the Author :
Rowan R. Mackay is Assistant Professor of English at the Chinese University, Hong Kong. Working at the crossroads of political language, social semiotics, and identity politics, previous publications have analysed the politics of Scotland, gender debates and how they can be analysed sensitively, and the role of irony within senior management teams.