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Discourse Analysis

Kanika Sud

Roll No : 12

Assignment submitted to the Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai in partial

fulfilment of the requirements for the M.Phil. Degree in Sociology for the course Designs,

Methods and Tools of Research (Paper II).

July , 2014

Department of Sociology,

University of Mumbai

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Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….………Page no. 3

2. What is ‘Discourse’?.................................................................Page no. 3

3. What is ‘Discourse Analysis’?...................................................Page no. 4

3.1. Theoretical Prepositions ……………………………………..….……..Page no. 5

3.2. Approaches to Discourse Analysis………………………….……….Page no. 6

4. Critical Discourse Analysis……………………………………………….……Page no. 7

5. Notions of Power…………………………………………………………..……..Page no. 10

5.1. Language, Discourse and Power………….………………..….……Page no. 12

6. Example of Discourse Analysis………………………………………..…….Page no. 14

7. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..…….Page no. 21

8. Bibliography and References…………………………………………..……Page no. 21

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Discourse Analysis

1. Introduction

This assignment begins with an attempt to understand the notion of ‘Discourse’ and draws

upon the works of various scholars (throughout) to get a glimpse of what ‘Discourse’ is. In the

third section, an understanding of Discourse will provide one with a background from which the

meaning and method of Discourse analysis is explored, followed by the basic theoretical

perspectives which underpin it. Due to its complexity various scholars have acknowledged that

it is difficult to give a single definition to Discourse Analysis. Thus, the third sub section will

provide one with three simplified approaches to Discourse analysis. The fourth section of the

assignment will focus on one of the approach of Discourse Analysis, i.e. Critical Discourse

Analysis/Foucauldian Analysis, and the next two sections will discuss the underpinning

components which define the shape of our Discourse Analysis. The final section discusses an

example of Discourse Analysis, on a short write up by an American writer Charlotte Perkins

Gilman, titled “The Yellow Wallpaper”, lastly followed by a few concluding remarks.

2. What is ‘Discourse’?

Discourse, as such, is a broad term, which ‘means anything from a historical monument, a

policy, a political strategy, narratives in a restricted or a broad sense of the term, text, a speech,

to language per se.’ (Wodak 2008). According to Cook (1989) it refers to the totality of all these

elements interacting. In order to understand discourse, Fairclough(1995) draws upon Fucoult‘s

key insight that ‘Discourse is in an active relation to reality, that language signifies reality in the

sense of constructing meanings for it, rather than that discourse is in a passive relation to

reality, with language merely referring to objects which are taken to be given in reality’. Locke

(2004) re drafts the definition of Discourse by using the dictionary meaning of constitute1 :

1To be; to go together to make'

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'Discourse(s) make the world meaningful.' Bleau(2010) observes that to suggest that discourse

is constitutive is to propose that discourse constructs people’s social worlds. Thus, the focus,

Bleau articulates, from this perspective will not be on the truth or falsity of accounts, but rather

on how ‘truths emerge’ Locke further raises epistemological questions here; ‘whether world is

knowable outside discourse and if meaning making can take place outside of socially

constructed signifying systems?

Fairclough refers to discourse as a practice. Locke further elaborates this claim stating that, a

discourse implies ways of being and doing as well as ways of signifying. Gee (1999) highlights

this aspect of discourse, while asserting that 'Discourses include much more than language':

“Discourses” with a capital “D,” that is, different ways in which we humans

integrate language with non-language “stuff,” such as different ways of thinking,

acting, interacting, valuing, feeling, believing, and using symbols, tools, and

objects in the right places and at the right times so as to enact and recognize

different identities and activities, give the material world certain meanings,

distribute social goods in a certain way, make certain sorts of meaningful

connections in our experience, and privilege certain symbol systems and ways of

knowing over others. (1999:13)

3. What is Discourse Analysis?

Discourse Analysis is an umbrella term for a number of Qualitative Research methods, and is

broadly involved in studying and analysing the use of languages, as put forward by Hogdes et al

(2008: pp250). Gee (1999) has described language as serving two functions, namely ‘to support

the performance of social activities and social identities and to support human affiliation within

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cultures, social groups, and institutions.’ Locke (2004) has quoted Norman Fairclough in the

beginning, to describe Discourse Analysis as aiming;

“to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and

determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b)

wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes; to

investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are

ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over

power.”(2004:1)

It is a relatively recent approach to the examination of systematic bodies of knowledge arising

from the traditions of critical social theory and linguistic analysis.2

3.1. Theoretical prepositions

One of the theoretical propositions offered of Discourse Analysis by Fairclough, as mentioned

by Locke (2004) is that it is the analysis of language which is shaped by relations of power and

invested with ideologies. For instance, Medical Language holds ideological assumptions about

what is best. The term ‘Alternative Medicine’ implies that ‘Non-Alternative Medicine’ is the

norm, rather than one of the two options.3

Discourse Analysis aids in constituting (and changing) knowledge, social relations and social

identity. This is viewed as a two way relationship, wherein language changes according to the

context and situations are altered according to language use. Gee (1999:11) refers to this

phenomenon as though it was a “chicken and egg” question: Which comes first? The situation

2See Wodak (2008), Pp 4

3Seehttp://www.strath.ac.uk/aer/materials/6furtherqualitativeresearchdesignandanalysis/unit3/basictenetsandcri

tiquesofcriticaldiscourseanalysis/

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we’re in (e.g. a committee meeting)? Or the language we use (our committee ways of talking

and interacting)?

Gee (1999: 11-12) discussed how discourse Analysis explores how languages are used for

construction of different versions of the world. He further explains this by putting forward six

‘areas of reality’ which are built concurrently by any communication;

A. significance (endowing meaning or value to things);

B. activities and identities;

C. relationship;

D. politics, (the distribution of social goods such as responsibility and power);

E. Connections, semiotics;

F. Knowledge.

According to Locke (2004:1) Discourse analysis views a prevailing social order and social

processes as constituted and sustained less by the will of individuals than by the pervasiveness

of particular constructions or versions of reality - often referred to as discourses.

3.2. Approaches to Discourse Analysis

Due to the many different ways the term has been used, Hodges,Kuper, and Reeves (2008:570)

have simplified approaches to Discourse Analysis into three clusters as follows;

Table 1: Three approaches to Discourse Analysis4

4 Taken from British Medical Journal, Vol. 337, No. 7669 (Sep. 6, 2008), pp. 571

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Orientation to Discourse Sources of Data Analysis

Formal Linguistic

Discourse Analysis(such as

sociolinguistics)

Samples of written or oral

language and Text

Microanalysis of linguistic,

grammatical, and semantic

uses and meanings of text.

Empirical Discourse

Analysis(such as

conversation analysis,

genre analysis)

Samples of written or oral and

language and Text and data on

the “uses” of the text in the social

settings

Microanalysis and

microanalysis of the ways in

which language and/or texts

construct social practices.

Critical Discourse

Analysis(Foucauldian

analysis)

Samples of written or oral and

language and Text and data on

the “uses” of the text in the social

settings; anddata on the intuitions

and individuals who produce and

are produced by the language

texts

Microanalysis of how

discourses (in many forms)

construct what is possible for

individuals and institutions to

think and to say.

4. Critical Discourse Analysis/ Foucauldian Analysis.

The latter part of this assignment will largely focus on Foucauldian Analysis5, which is also

termed as Critical Discourse Analysis by researchers in Cultural Studies, Sociology, and

Philosophy, to ‘encompass an even wider sphere than the other two (mentioned in the table)

to embrace all of the social practices, individuals, and institutions that make it possible to

understand phenomena in a particular way, and to make certain statements about what is

“true”’6 This approach was inspired by the work of Michel Foucault and Jacques

5Often times, they will be used interchangeably, as CDA is an offshoot of DA.

6See British Medical Journal, Vol. 337, No. 7669 (Sep. 6, 2008), pp. 570

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Derrida.7Wodak (2008:1) like many other scholars has articulated that almost no paper or

article is to be found which does not revisit the notions of Discourse while quoting Michel

Foucoult, Habermas, Laslau and many others.8According to Dijk( 1993);

“Critical Discourse Analysis is a special approach in Discourse analysis which

focuses on discursive conditions, components and consequences of power abuse

by dominant (elite) groups and institutions. It examines patterns of access and

control over contexts, texts, genres, talk, and discursive strategies of mind

control. It studies discourse and its functions in the society, and the ways society

and forms of inequality are expressed, reproduced, legitimated, and represented

in talk and text. This is done in opposition against those groups and institutions

who abuse their power...” (1993: 24)

Fucauldian Analysis thus illustrates how particular discourses “systematically construct versions

of the social world”.9Fucoult’s study of madness for example uncovered three distinct

discourses that have constructed what madness is in different historical periods; madness as

spiritual possession, madness as social deviancy and madness as mental illness. (Hodges,Kuper,

&Reeves,2008:570 ; Beaulieu &Fillion, 2008) In the period where madness is a mental illness, it

is treated and controlled by medical and psychiatric practices. The conceptual distinction

between the mad and the rational was in a sense a product of the physical separation of the

mad, also referred to as confinement. This confinement made the mad conveniently available

7 Robin Wooffitt ( 2005). Conversation analysis and discourse analysis: a comparative and critical introduction.

SAGE. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-7619-7426-0.

8see Wodak (2008), Pp 4

9See Rogers et al (2005) Critical Discourse Analysis in Education: A Review of the literature. Review of Educational

Research Fall 2005, Vol.75, No.3,pp 365-416.

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to the medical doctors who began to view madness as a natural object, worthy of study and

then an illness to be cured.10 This is a central idea in one of Foucault’s books titled Madness and

Civilisation (1973). Foucault makes an important claim, that the notion of madness is not a

‘natural’ and an ‘unchanging’ phenomenon. Rather, it quite depends on the Society it exists in.

Various cultural, intellectual, and economic structures define how madness is understood and

experienced. Thus, madness is seen by Fouault as being located in a certain cultural “space”

within the society.11

Shaw et al (2005) have applied discourse analysis to illustrate the many ways in which research

can be defined (for example a medical editor, the World Medical Association) and how these

various definitions are linked to the power and objectives of various institutions.12 In their

work, Shaw et al illustrate how the languages and practices of healthcare professionals and

institutions are examined with an aim of understanding how practices shape and limit the ways

that individuals and institutions can speak and conduct themselves.

Beaulieu &Fillion (2008) make note that in most of his works, Foucault describes with great

subtlety the development of knowledge/power practices by studying disciplinary and

normalization strategies. These analyses go beyond the framework of the psychiatric field,

extending to all control mechanisms.

10Gutting, Gary, "Michel Foucault", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2013 Edition), Edward N.

Zalta (ed.)

11See http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/madnessandciv/themes.html

12See Shaw S, Boynton PM, Greenhalgh T. Research governance: where did it come from, what does it mean?

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5. Notions of Power

Powers (2007) succinctly introduces that the notion of power is the most important notion in

Foucault’s work because it forms the basis for the analysis of Discourse. Powers draws the

description of the notion of power from the text The History of Sexuality, Volume One,

Introduction (1978) Following points have been summarised from her description13 ;

• Power is to be understood as a network of interacting forces that are goal-driven, and

relational. It creates tension between, within and among individuals or groups. It is to be

understood as a plural, multidirectional phenomenon with unidentifiable instances of

application. Power is not necessarily used as a strategy or brute physical force consciously

applied by some people over other.

• Power is a process that operates in continuous struggles and confrontations that

change, strengthen, or reverse the polarity of the force relations between power and

resistance.

• Concepts constitute and are constituted by each other, thus forming a web or system of

interacting influences. For instance, the domination of patriarchy is partially sustained by the

definition of women as not-men.

• Power is known from the strategies and practices in and through which the force

relations take effect. The process of marginalisation can be seen as an example the strategies

and practices. Marginalisation is the process by which non dominant discourses are not

eliminated but tolerated as alternative speaking positions of resistance. This process is

13See Powers (2007) The Philosophical Foundations of Foucaltian Discourse Analysis pp.28 in; Critical Approaches

to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines 1 (2): 18-34

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necessary because power and resistance are defined in relation to one another. The

institutional manifestations of these strategies and practices of power maybe found in

bureaucracy, law, and various social hegemonic discourses such as Science, Medicine and

Education.

Powers (2007) further articulates that there is no central point from which all power emanates.

Instead, power consists of a continually shifting web or grid of individual positions of tension

between power and resistance. Because of the inequality of the tension, local and unstable

states of power and resistance are constantly being created, dissolved, reversed and reshuffled.

It does not exist apart from economic relations, political relations, knowledge relations, or

sexual relations, but is inherent in them. It has a direct reproductive role in these relations.

Thus ‘Power is everywhere’ and ‘comes from everywhere’ so in this sense is neither an agency

nor a structure (Foucault 1998: 63). It is a kind of ‘metapower’ or ‘regime of truth’ that

pervades society, and which is in constant flux and negotiation. Foucault uses the term

‘power/knowledge’ to signify that power is constituted through accepted forms of knowledge,

scientific understanding and ‘truth’14.

Hence, what can be noted from Powers summary of the notion of power in the text The History

of Sexuality, there’s been a shift Foucault’s conceptual analysis. Foucault maps the alteration

from a ‘top-down’ form of social control in the form of physical brute force to a more diffused,

subtle and sinister form of surveillance and the process of ‘normalisation’. The latter, says

Foucault(1998), is encapsulated by Bentham's Panopticon; a nineteenth century prison system

in which prison cells were arranged around a central watchtower from which the supervisor

could watch inmates, yet the inmates could never be certain when they were being watched,

therefore, over time, they began to police their own behaviour. The Panopticon has become

14See Faucaul,Michel(1998)The history of Sexuality(Vol-1):The will of Knowledge

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the metaphor for the processes whereby disciplinary 'technologies', together with the

emergence of a normative social science, 'police' both the mind and body of the modern

individual.15

A key point about Foucault’s approach to power is that it transcends politics and sees power as

an everyday, socialised and embodied phenomenon. This is why state-centric power struggles,

including revolutions, do not always lead to change in the social order. For some, Foucault’s

concept of power is so elusive and removed from agency or structure that there seems to be

little scope for practical action. But he has been hugely influential in pointing to the ways that

norms can be so embedded as to be beyond our perception – causing us to discipline ourselves

without any wilful coercion from others.16

5.1. Language, Discourse and Power.

Language is at the heart of critical discourse analysis (Locke 2004:11). Discourse Analysis takes

an interest in the ways in which linguistic forms are used in various expressions and

manipulations of power. (Wodak 2007) Language has a magical property: when we speak or

write we craft what we have to say to fit the situation or context in which we are

communicating. (Gee 1999: 11) For Critical Discourse Analysis, Wodak( 2001) claims, language

is not powerful on its own – it gains power by the use powerful people make use of it. This is

precisely why, Wodak contends, Discourse Analysis chooses the perspectives of those who

suffer, and critically analyses the language use of those in power, who are responsible for the

existence of inequalities and who also have means and opportunity to improve conditions. It

15see http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/theory/foucault.htm

16see http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/foucault-power-is-everywhere/

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tries to look at how language functions in constituting and transmitting knowledge in organising

social institutions or in exercising power.17

Wodak (2001) makes an important assertion about language, that it is not apolitical and is

rooted in power, used as a tool by the elite(s) to control the masses (Hegemony in Gramscian

sense). She clearly states;

“An important perspective in Critical Discourse Analysis is related to the notion

of power. Power is about relations of difference, and particularly about the

effects of differences in Social Structures. The constant unity of language and

other social matters ensures that language is entwined in social power in a

number of ways: language indexes power expresses power and is involved where

there is contention over power and where power is challenged. Power does not

derive from language, but language can be used to challenge power, subvert it,

to alter distributions of power both in the short and long run. It provides a finely

articulated vehicle for differences in power within hierarchical and social

structures. Power is signalled not only by grammatical forms within a text. But

also by a person’s control of a social occasion by means of genre or act.”

(2001:10)

Therefore, Dijk&Kihtsch (1983) too re- assert that Discourse Analysis aims to understand and

reveal the ontological and epistemological premises, which are embedded in language and

which allows a statement to be undertaken as rational or interpreted as meaning.18

17See http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~diekmann/zfal/zfalarchiv/zfal36_1.pdf

18Wodak,Ruth (2001) Aspects of critical Discourse Analysis. In Wodal, R & Meyer, M Methods of Critical Discourse

Analysis,(p10) Sage.

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Forchetner (2010) endorses and quotes Habermas’ claim that “Language is also a medium of

domination and Social force. It serves to legitimise relations of organised power. In so far as the

legitimisation of power relations...are not articulated...Language is also ideological.”19

6. Example of Discourse Analysis

This section of the assignment will deal with the application of Discourse Analysis, drawing

upon various articles and scholarly papers, to understand Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s thoroughly

anthologized story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (1892).

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first

published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early

work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's

physical and mental health.20 Gilman was diagnosed with “neurasthenia”21 and it was her

attempt to write this story as an insight to her belief that the method of treatment meted out

to her (established by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell) were completely ineffective and more harmful than

helpful.22

Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman

(Jane) whose physician husband (John) has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of a house he

has rented for the summer.23 He has scientifically diagnosed his wife's condition as merely "a

19Forchetner (2010) Jurgen Habermas’ Language – Philosophy and the critical language study; in Critical

Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines. Vol 4(1):18-37. ISSN: 1752-3079 http://cadaad.net/files/journal/CADAAD%202010_Forchtner.pdf 20see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper

21A psychological disorder marked especially by easy fatigability and often by lack of motivation, feelings of

inadequacy, and psychosomatic symptoms.

22see Smith (2004) http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/jsp/db/view.jsp?columnId=105&contentType=column

23see Smith (2004)

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temporary nervous depression"; her brother, also a noted physician, concurs in this opinion

(Treichler 1984). She is forbidden from working and has to hide her journal from him, so she

can recuperate from a diagnosis common to women in that period. 24 This act of hiding her

diary and writing when she is advised against it is in itself an act of quiet resistance, which

Treichler (1984) calls it as “challenging the expert prescription that forbids her to write or

journal”.

Bak (1994) in his introduction mentions ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ to be read as a feminist

assertion of freedom, in their men’s efforts to control women. Salas (2012) in her paper aims to

prove that, the female protagonist in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ consciously elaborates a mad

language and discourse as part of her strategy to fight patriarchy from within. Treichler (1984)

offers a close and a thorough reading of a short story which have been of interest to Feminists,

Psychologists, Sociologists and Literary critics. In her article, she claimed that readers in the

19th century and the readers in the recent times have treated the narrator’s madness as a

harrowing case of “neurasthenia” a function of her individual psychological function. And she

has shown, "a feminist reading emphasizes the social and economic conditions which

drive the narrator- and potentially all women-to madness.” (1984: 64)

Ford (1985) and Malin (2013) assert that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story which is more

than just about a woman/narrator who slips into deeper depression. Malin (2013) has argued in

her paper that the narrator “slips into deeper psychosis” and “allows her odd behaviour to be a

form of revolt regarding societal expectations on motherhood”25 when the husband of her

narrator does not listen to her pleas for intellectual stimulation.

Dijk (1995) in his scholarly article on Critical Discourse Analysis makes an important point;

24see Treichler (1984), pp. 61-77

25see Bak, John S(1994) http://www.online-literature.com/article/charlotte-perkins-gilman/4905/

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“... elites have control over, or more or less preferential access to the most

influential and important genres of discourse in the society. Such access is

defined in terms of their (Powerful) social or institutional position or function,

and vice versa their control over or access to specific forms of institutional or

public discourse sustain, and reproduce their power in specific communicative

situations.”26 (1995: 20).

The above excerpt from Dijk’s article can be observed to resonate with the narrator’s husband

and brother’s part from “The Yellow Wallpaper”. They were men in the 19th century patriarchal

world and physicians in the 19th century medical profession. The narrator’s suggestion that she

be permitted to engage with the society instead of being damned into isolation was met with

opposition from her physician husband (whose diagnosis was later reinforced by her brother).

She was dismissed as being irrational, unable to make decisions for herself, and as a result she

was not deemed as qualified to offer ideas about her own condition. One could take the liberty

to say that the narrator’s physician husband and brother were ‘elites’ who ‘had control over

important genres of discourse in the society’. Being physicians they had access to the male

dominated medical discourse, something that Gilman had to struggle against which attempted

to silence her.

The narrator wishes to write and is of a firm opinion that writing will be more beneficial to her

mental health than complete bed rest, as prescribed by the husband. However the husband

thinks otherwise. He attributes her creative outlet to her deteriorating mental health.

Huckin(2002) explores the related discourse analysis and describes that this kind of

conversation indicates “how people are manipulated...and thereby subjected to abuses of

power”27. The hiding of journal entry, according to Huckin, is an excellent example and he

further articulates that critical discourse analysis takes into account interpersonal aspects such

26 see Dijk (2007)

27see Huckin (2002)

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as “politeness, identity and ethos”. The narrator didn’t overtly disobey the husband’s decree to

not write a journal, so as to “not cause social ripples”.

Gilman produced her work in a period when women were to be associated with traditional

feminine stereotypes of being passive, frail, weak, and powerless. The women who did not

conform to these stereotypes were perceived as hysterical, (a disease stereotypically common

in women) which was seen as a by product of excessive education and over stimulation of their

‘female’ brain.

Treichler(1984) elucidates further ; "In this story diagnosis 'is powerful and public...It is a male

voice that...imposes controls on the female narrator and dictates how she is to perceive and

talk about the world.' Diagnosis covertly functions to empower the male physician's voice and

disempower the female patient’s".28 One can notice the persistent male voice in the short story

that tried to control and dominate her, making decisions for what is she to perceive and

understand about the world which surrounds her.

Dijk (1993) claims that “From a discourse analytical and sociological point of view, it is tempting

to study the relations between discourse structures and power structures more or less

directly”. He gives an instance where he mentions that “we may assume that directive speech

acts such as commands or orders may be used to enact power, and hence also to exercise and

reproduce dominance.” (1993:250)29

Therefore, one can perhaps say that social inequality is and can be reproduced by individual

acts. During the time when Gilman wrote her piece, the prevalent andocentric medical

discourse at that time was hugely biased against women. And it was practiced by her husband

and brother, albeit keeping in mind her best interests. They had the authority to ‘tame’ her,

28see Treichler (1984), pp. 61-77

29Dijk (2007)

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which can be, as put forward by Dijk “used to enact power, and hence also to exercise and

reproduce dominance”.

Ford (1985) mentions that in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ the physician is the “quintessential man”.

And his talk, therefore, is the “epitome of male discourse”. Treichler (1984) too defines the

“physicians talk” as “powerful and public; representing institutional authority, it dictates... it

privileges the rational, the practical and the observable” (1985:66) as it is defined by the

Victorian culture. While she accepts the authenticity of strictly feminist claims, she puts

forward that a nearer look at the text could suggest that the wallpaper “represents woman’s

writing or discourse and the woman in the wallpaper represents women after they attain the

right to speak”. According to Bak (1994) “The Yellow Wallpaper” has thus, become a feminist

text that indicated the men who were responsible for the narrator’s physical confinement and

subsequent mental demise. It is a theme of suffering in silence from prescribed roles and

expectations.30

However, while reading ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ one is also reminded of Foucault’s attempts at

understanding the evolving notions of madness and ways of disciplining and punishment. In his

much celebrated book Madness and Civilisation: A History of insanity in the Age of Reason(

1964) Foucault, attempts to trace how the notion of Madness has evolved through three

phases ; i) The Renaissance ii) The Classical Age (17th-18th century) and iii) the modern

experience. In the Renaissance, the mad were portrayed as possessing wisdom and knowledge

of the otherworld. The Classical age marked the beginning an age of reason. Mad were

marginalised, and separating them from society was seen as a rational response, a process he

called “The great confinement”. The Modern experience began with the creation of places

solely meant for confinement of the mad, who were put under supervision of medical doctors.

These institutions soon came to seen as the only place where therapeutic treatment can be

meted out to the mad.

30 see Malin(2013), pp. 3 & 6

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One can see an interconnectedness between Foucault’s modern experience of illness and the

diagnosis she was prescribed by John and her brother, in order to cure her madness. As

mentioned earlier in this assignment “notion of madness is not a ‘natural’ and an ‘unchanging’

phenomenon. Rather, it quite depends on the Society it exists in.”During the modern period

(the same period when Gilman produced her work) one could see the relationship between the

concept and construction of a “woman”, “feminine” and “feminity” and what is discursively

described as madness. The women who were constructed as “deviant” and “disobedient” were

pigeonholed as “mad women”. Thus, the mad discourse, as can be observed, was heavily laden

with patriarchal narratives, which further suppressed women.

Smith (2004) and Bak (1994) bring in the notion of Panopticon31 in their analysis of the text. It’s

an instrument of power and observation experimental design, for a more sanitary and easily

managed prison designed by eighteenth-century architect Jeremy Bentham. Salas (2012)

further adds that the idea was that there would be less work for wardens to do because the

prisoners would regulate their behaviour, fearful that they might be being watched. However,

Foucault concluded that it does not necessarily regulate behaviour and create a better-behaved

community; rather, it might cause psychological problems and relates the psychological stress it

inflicted upon the prisoners to the stress the wallpaper inflicted upon Gilman’s narrator.

Smith endorses Bak’s (1994) argument that it’s not only the bed rest treatment that drives

Gilman’s character insane. Just like the “wallpaper impresses upon the narrator the dubious

knowledge that she was being watched, but never knowing when.” Bak attributes the insanity

of Gilman’s main character to this paranoid pressure. He feels there’s a lot of similarity

31 An architectural design of a prison constructed in such a way that the guards can see each of the prisoners at all

times, without being seen. It is an establishment of a giant, all pervading mass surveillance society, derived from Bentham’s model of a prison with an all-seeing inspector. This model functions to make prisoners take responsibility for regulating their behavior. Assuming that they care about the implications of bad behavior, prisoners will act in the manner prescribed by the institutions at all times on the chance that they are being watched.See https://www.academia.edu/839122/Beyond_Foucault_New_Perspectives_on_Benthams_Panopticon andhttp://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/foucault-and-social-media-life-in-a-virtual-panopticon/

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between the room in which the narrator is confined to and the panoption. She felt she was

being watched by the two men in her life and by those in the yellow wall paper. Gilman’s

narrator dwells a great deal on the “two bulbous eyes” that gaze at her constantly (Smith

2004).

Bak (1994) also discusses the yellow wallpaper and the narrator’s feelings towards it. She is

overcome with fear and paranoia and can see a woman being trapped in the patterns in the

wallpaper. Smith(2004) reasons that “it is this vision of entrapment and the longing the

narrator later feels for the imprisoned woman to be set free that relates to the nature of

panopticon.”32Bak (1994) in his article mentions that due to the dreadful gazing presence, the

narrator begins to feel a hatred for the wallpaper and a longing to be free from its “smouldering

unclean” colour and the “rancid yellow” scent that she allows her mind to persuade her senses

to experience. He further interpreted that because of the gaze, she became very fretful and

fearful, always suspecting that someone is constantly watching her and she wanted to be

constantly free of it.

In order to further make sense of her paranoia, Smith (2004) also reverts to a traditional

feminist take on this story, to say that “the ever watching eyes that the narrator felt heavily

upon her, were those of society, especially the men of the age who dictated the roles of the

women’s’ lives. Keeping this mindset, the vision behind the pattern can easily be associated to a

woman trapped behind the tedious pattern of every-day Victorian life.” (Smith 2004: Para 6)

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ has been interpreted multiple times in myriad ways. This assignment

has barely touched the tip of the ice berg, in terms of conducting a Discourse Analysis on

Gilman’s text. The text has provided the readers the opportunity to explore the question

whether women’s madness can be read as a subversive discourse hat has the potential to

overturn the dominant discourse. Various questions about agency, speech, women’s creation,

32see smith (2004): The Yellow Panopticon

21

etc arose, which the notion of madness in the modern era gave the “madwomen” respite from -

albeit a dubious one.

7. Conclusion

Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis in particular, can be used to explore the

power relations and power effects inherent in discourses within many disciplines and popular

culture (Powers 2007). The above example of Discourse Analysis investigates the process of

“medicalisation” and “clinicalisation” of social control and the role science plays in perpetuating

hegemony and power. Discourse analysis is an effective method to approach a wide range of

research questions ranging from medical establishments to education, etc in order to unveil

the hidden power structures which work in favour of a few at the expense of many. It is more

than (and it quite often is, too!) the “microanalysis of linguistic and semantic uses of a text”.

Discourse Analysis therefore, is a valuable tool for the oppressed and marginalised to

understand and reveal the complex ground realities and unequal social and personal

relationships.

8. Bibliography and References

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wall Paper in; The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings. New York: Bantam Dell/ Random House, Inc., 2006. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/literatureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalDocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf> Robin Wooffitt (2005). Conversation analysis and discourse analysis: a comparative and critical introduction. London: SAGE. ISBN 978-0-7619-7426-0.PDF Wodak, R. (2008). Introduction: discourse studies - important concepts and terms. In Wodak, R., & Krzyzanowski, M. (Eds.), Qualitative discourse analysis in the Social Sciences.. (pp. 1-29). Basingstoke: Palgrave. PDF Hodges, Kuper, and Reeves (2008). Qualitative Research: Discourse Analysis. British Medical Journal, Vol. 337, No. 7669. PDF

Rogers et al (2005) Critical Discourse Analysis in Education: A Review of the literature. Review of Educational Research Fall 2005, Vol.75, No.3.PDF

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Weiss and Wodak(Ed, 2003) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Interdisciplinarity, New York: Pagrave Macmillan. PDF

Locke (2004) Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum Publishing Group. ISBN 0 8264 64866. PDF.

Wooffit (2005) Conversation and Discourse Analysis. London: Sage Publications Ltd. PDF

Gee (1999) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-01988-1 Master e-book ISBN

Gutting, Gary, "Michel Foucault", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (summer 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) PDF

Powers (2007) The Philosophical Foundations of Foucaltian Discourse Analysis pp.28 in; Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines 1 (2): 18-34.PDF

Foucault, Michel (1998)The history of Sexuality(Vol-1):The will of Knowledge.PDF

Wodak, Ruth (2001) Aspects of critical Discourse Analysis. In Wodak, R & Meyer, M Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, Sage.PDF

Forchetner (2010) Jurgen Habermas’ Language – Philosophy and the critical language study; in Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines. Vol 4(1):18-37. ISSN: 1752-3079<http://cadaad.net/files/journal/CADAAD%202010_Forchtner.pdf>

Smith (2004) The Yellow Panopticon: A comparison of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Bentham’s Panopticon http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/jsp/db/view.jsp?columnId=105&contentType=column Treichler (1984) Escaping the sentence: Diagnosis and discourse in the “Yellow Wallpaper” in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Vol.3, No. ½, Feminist Issues in Literary Scholarship ( Spring – Autumn, 1984), pp. 61-77. PDF

Bak, John S(1994) Escaping the jaundiced eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper."The literature network. < http://www.online-literature.com/article/charlotte-perkins-gilman/4905/>

Dijk (2007) Aims of Critical discourse Analysis in Japanese Discourse Vol. 1(1995), 12- <http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Aims%20of%20Critical%20Discourse%20Analysis.pdf

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Huckin, Thomas (2002) Chapter 7: Critical Discourse Analysis and the Discourse of Condescension in Discourse Studies in Composition, ed. E. Barton and G. Stygall. Hampton.<http://www.writing.ucsb.edu/wrconf08/Pdf_Articles/Huckin_Article.pdf>

Malin, Natlie. (2013) “Charlotte Perkins Gilman’sDisillusionment with SocialNorms.” Plaza: Dialogues in Language and Literature3.2. PDF.

Pinkus, Jenny (1996), Foucault <http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock/theory/foucault.htm> Gaventa (2003) Foucault Power is everywhere in Powercube <http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/foucault-power-is-everywhere/>

Wodak (2002) Aspects of Critical Discourse Analysis <http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~diekmann/zfal/zfalarchiv/zfal36_1.pdf>

Ernst (2014) Beyond Foucault: New Perspectives on Bentham's Panopticon <https://www.academia.edu/839122/Beyond_Foucault_New_Perspectives_on_Benthams_Panopticon>

Timrayner (2012) Foucault and Social Media: Life in a virtual panopticon. In Philosophy for Change <http://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/foucault-and-social-media-life-in-a-virtual-panopticon/>