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University of the west of england

A written analysis

of textual data

Foucauldian discourse analysis and critique of a magazine article

Acknowledgement

I have drawn heavily from Carla Willig’s summary of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis and appreciate her succinct appraisal of this complex field. Her text greatly assisted structuring this paper.

(Source: Willig, 2003, pp.106-124)

Student Number : 02976321

Award : MSc Qualitative Methods in Psychology (Level M)

Module : Textual Analysis (USP406SM)

Module Leader : Dr Hannah Frith

Date : 30th January 2004

Word Count : 3991

A written analysis of textual data.

Foucauldian discourse analysis and critique of a magazine article.

Introduction

Textual analytics became popular throughout the 1970s when post-structuralist/modern, feminist and social constructionist ideas challenged the psy-complex and mainstream empirical psychology (Fox & Prilleltensky, 1997; Parker & Spears, 1996); changing the emphasis from static individuals to dynamic systems of interaction (Potter, 1996a). All discourse analyses focus specifically upon language as a subject of investigation rather than plainly viewing it as a neutral communicative resource (Cole, 1995; Fairclough, 1992; Wetherell, et al., 2001a, 2001b; Willig, 1991). Discourse analytics adopt relativist ontologies but operate from different epistemological modes. Discourses do not simply reflect reality in transparent ways, as realist understandings would claim, but actively contribute to the construction of our knowledge and the social world (Seale, 1998, p.246; McGhee, 2001, p.149). Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) offers a particular critical approach to researching psychological and social worlds by considering broader contexts, rigorously dissecting discourses rather than imposing a single theoretical framework. In his quest to reveal power relations, the French post-structuralist philosopher and historian Michel Foucault claimed discourses comprise bodies of knowledge which systematically create and reproduce particular social institutions (Holloway, 1997, p.48; Hall, 2000). Foucault wanted to reveal how certain discourses help sustain networks of social meaning which regulate and control people in ways that appear natural (Seale, 1998, p.246). He popularised discourse analysis by exposing links between textual sources and powerful social institutions, drawing concerns about domination and subordination associated with the intellectual traditions of Marxism and Feminism (see appendix-iv).

Psychological discourse practices generally utilise talk from sources of interview data but FDA can be performed wherever meaning exists, upon various types of communication and textual material (Willig, 2001, p.108). The abridged version outlining six distinctive stages of analysis (appendix-iii) is more appropriate for analysing the psychological nature of this textual analysis which constructs an epiphany; rather than analysing an explicit account of an authoritative social institution as illustrated by Foucault’s major accounts of madness, medicine, crime and sexuality (see bibliography; Ransom, 1997). Epiphanies are pivotal events which designate turning points in an individual’s life which, as with this text, involve positive and negative impacts (Creswell, 1997, p. 47-51, 232). The text comprises a static print-based article from a newspaper style magazine, independently published and widely available for free across the south west of England (appendix-i). Typical outlets include universities, libraries, council buildings, cafes, health food stores, complementary/holistic practices, charities and an array of shops promoting alternative, green, ethical and organic trading. Aimed at all members of society, the text encourages personal growth and positivity alongside alternative lifestyles and spiritual cleansing. As well as the written account, an iconographic illustration evokes the parallel that thirty nine years represent a guidebook for those approaching their forties.

Analysis

The textual data was formatted for referencing six stages of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (appendix-ii, iii; Willig, 2001, pp.106-124). These chart some of the discursive resources used in a text and identify various subject positions they contain, enabling further exploration of their implications for subjectivity and practice. I have selected ‘approaching forty’ as the discursive object because this captures the spirit of the text. Discursive objects are usually informed by a research question but this project involved simply executing and critiquing a textual analytic. The author will be referred to by her Christian name to respect and preserve the ownership of her personal experiences.

Stage 1: Discursive Constructions

This stage identifies various ways in which the discursive object is constructed in the text, via direct lexical references and shared meanings. Catharine refers to ‘approaching forty’ as joining a ‘club’ (lines 4-5); as repositioning itself in the lifecourse, ‘forty is the new thirty’ (line 16); as something involving personal growth, ‘rollercoaster ride of self-discovery’ (lines 10-12, 29-31, 42-45); as inducing bodily changes, ‘pre-menopausal’ and ‘surge of sexiness’ (lines 17-22, 24, 47-48); as overcoming unfulfilling and less frequent relationships, ‘crumbs of love’, ‘Mr Unavailable’ and ‘six months to a year between men’ (lines 12, 27-29, 31-37, 48) and as entering ‘middle age’ (lines 55-56). These references establish ‘approaching forty’ as a major milestone in life which brings unwanted bodily changes alongside personal growth. The second half of the text constructs ‘approaching forty’ as a progression toward acquiring a healthier relationship (lines 39-53).

Stage 2: Discourses

This stage places the various discursive constructions of ‘approaching forty’ within wider discourses. A discursive object can be constructed in diverse and contradictory ways according to different purposes within the same text. Catharine’s experience draws upon several discourses (e.g. midlife, independence, alternative lifestyle, motherhood, heterosexual, female, biosocial, romance, wisdom) but I wish to focus upon ageing and relationship discourses as these symbolise primary themes.

The ageing discourse constructs a development toward yearning for a healthy romantic partnership with commitment but does not lie comfortably with settling down into motherhood (lines 26-27). Thus, I interpret Catharine’s personal growth as something relating more to independence and selfhood, as becoming aware of her own needs and adjustment to growing older. This challenges dominant discourses about heterosexual female roles by refusing to join the race toward biological reproduction. The ageing discourse explains several physical changes to Catharine’s body and whilst these appear problematic or negative the concurrent emotional and intellectual maturations associated with ageing are welcomed (lines 10-14, 17-24).

The relationship discourse constructs an evolution from immature teenage encounters, through unfulfilling partnerships in her twenties, less frequent sexual adventures with men in her thirties to a newly found romance (lines 6-10, 34-39). Catharine liberates herself from ‘crumbs of love’ and embarks upon ‘feasting’ with, and upon, her current partner (lines 28-29, 48-49). By constructing the discursive object with certain sources from relationship discourse Catharine creates a particular account of becoming forty. This version embraces entering midlife as incorporating a blend of middle-aged activities with the excitement of youthfulness (lines 48-55), supporting forty to be constructed as the new thirty.

The discursive object invokes concerns about ‘midlife crises’ and the imperative of ‘settling down’. Whilst neither are explicitly mentioned or explored within the text, they are significant aspects of the relationship discourse especially associated with being forty. By summoning the relationship discourse, associations with settling down invoke a whole string of implications connected with its everyday practice (e.g. romance, commitment, childbearing, wealth). However, Catharine’s particular version of settling down opposes normative values of parenthood and perhaps more realistically involve an independent lifestyle. Thus she is questioning her own ideas about settling down.

Stage 3: Action Orientation

This stage requires closer scrutiny of the discursive contexts to facilitate a clearer understanding of what the various constructions of the discursive object can possibly accomplish within the text.

The text starts by constructing ‘approaching forty’ as joining a club with ‘an increasingly ageing membership’ which I interpret as an attempt to captivate the reader’s attention because it identifies a change in wider social discourse (lines 1-5). More importantly, access to this metaphoric construction of entering the forties is potentially available to us all, and we should take heed because maybe we can learn some lessons and apply tham to our own lives. During the beginning of the text less meaningful teenage encounters involving ‘snogs with boys I didn’t know I could say no to’ (lines 6-7) lay the foundation to which her later wisdom can be compared to. This is further endorsed by the period during her twenties which lacks focus and achievement (lines 8-10). In fact Catharine constructs her thirties as being the ‘most fun’ since this era involved the personal growth that should have occurred earlier (lines 6, 9-10).

Catharine’s explorations of psychological and spiritual growth throughout her thirties far outweighs concerns about physical decline which affects us all. She draws upon the menopause discourse to endorse psychological changes in ‘confidence’ and ‘sexiness’ which are direct consequences of her hormonal shift (lines 21-24). This is a far more positive portrayal of a woman approaching forty than someone being ‘past it’ (lines 14-16, 46). Importantly, I interpret the being past it discourse as encompassing less energy for life (i.e. clubbing, going out, sexual adventures) and approaching less opportunities for reproduction with associated fertility and childbirth complications.

At the middle of the text Catharine appears to take control of her life by moving on from her dissatisfaction with ‘crumbs of love’ and what appears to have been an unsuccessful partnership with ‘Mr Unavailable’ (lines 27-32). Since this article was written in the context of promoting the ‘human potential to change’ and ‘personal responsibility’ (appendix-i) she clearly constructs an optimistic view of approaching midlife dilemmas. This is rectified by the ability to accept what one has in life and not regret underachievement in order to ‘enjoy the moment’ (line 30); expertly communicated by the serenity prayer (appendix-iv; Open-mind, 2004).

Catharine’s use of relationship discourse in the second half of the text allows her to ascribe responsibility for a healthier relationship to personal growth, whilst emphasising this requires completing difficult journeys through one’s psyche (lines 10-12). The opinion that to achieve a healthy relationship social actors must first love themselves in order to love another is prominent in contemporary talk, personal growth, spiritual teachings and associated self help groups like the twelve step fellowships (Whitfield, 1991).

Stage 4: Positionings

Having previously located the discursive object within wider discourses, this stage identifies subject positions offered by various constructions of ‘approaching forty’ which deal with primary repertoires about ageing, relationships and personal growth (see appendix-i about the context of the text).

Catharine’s ageing discourse contains the subject position of the psychologically and emotionally maturing adult, whilst her relationship discourse positions women between needing to make some difficult and often conflicting choices in life. Catharine’s treatment of relationship discourse may be a response to her own quandary about being a woman who craves a meaningful relationship with a man but rejects having children (lines 26-27). Hence the subject positions offered by these constructions involve someone enduring much personal and spiritual growth to form a more comfortable sense of self which consequently offers the potential to form more wholesome relationships.

Catharine approaches midlife with veracity (lines 55-56) and aims to put her wisdom and maturity into practice but there is clear conflict between her discourses of independence and romance, largely due to her lack of incentive for motherhood. This could position her as selfishly pursuing only what she wants from life without devoting any time to motherhood. However, I interpret Catharine as becoming someone who can now make informed decisions about the type of relationship she desires and that she is delaying (or denying) motherhood until she finds the right man. This is someone who is enjoying a new found love via maturity based upon personal growth. However, I feel she has less choice about the lifestyle she once desired with ‘Mr Right-on’ (lines 32-36) and has endured loneliness associated with being single in order to reach a better selfhood; adjusting to a different way of being, informed by spiritual laws (line 30).

Stage 5: Practice

This stage examines the relationship between discourse and practice by considering the possibilities or limitations for action, via constructing particular accounts of the world and positioning subjects within these discourses in specific ways.

Constructions of approaching forty as completing a ‘rollercoaster ride of self-discovery’ implicates the practice of personal growth as being closely interlinked with needing to take control of one’s circumstances. Thus, to implement successful changes to one’s life to achieve a better future, one must undergo a journey of self awareness via making sense of one’s past. Concerning developing healthier relationships and settling down, simply enjoying the friendship and non-sexual experiences during the start of a new romance means that one can exert more choice about whether someone else is an appropriate sexual partner (lines 42-45, 49-53). This self-discovery discourse means that Catharine can exercise more objective decisions when approaching romantic encounters, and life in general.

Overall, I interpret the various constructions of ‘approaching forty’ as being able to embrace the ageing process with dignity and positivity rather than surrendering to psychological and physical decline. However, this requires acceptance of some of the features of ageing such as ‘chin sprouts’ (lines 19,22) which are particularly unattractive for women. Hence the effect of this printed article means that if Catharine can do it, so to can the reader because she presents herself as an example of personal growth. Thus the text simultaneously constructs and maintains personal development.

Stage 6: Subjectivity

This stage traces the outcomes of adopting various subject positions by drawing links between discursive constructions and personal experiences. It is therefore highly interpretive of the relationship between discourse and subjectivity.

Constructions about entering midlife as joining a ‘club’ implicate subject positions for shared experiences about ageing and forming fruitful, commited relationships. The fact that Catharine mentions an increasingly ageing membership also lessens the impact of growing old and feeling left out (i.e. life’s like a car park during the thirties because all the best spaces are taken; a metaphore expressing the unavailability of more superior partners). In this text, rather than residing to being ‘past it’, adopting the subject position of personal growth offers compensation against the ageing process, and ultimately death, since ‘these days you’re not past it till you’re dead’ (line 16). Unlike many people who fear middle age, Catharine relishes joining the forties club, if her thirties’ experiences are anything to go by (lines 55-56) and is possibly attempting to transcend physical mortality.

The significance of personal growth is paramount within this text. I interpret Catharine as attempting to discover a more comfortable existence, although this is still implicates a romantic partnership as evidenced by her preoccupation with a relationship discourse. People like Catharine are often constructed as offering more virtuous qualities because they have devoted more time to their own development and sorting themselves out. Conversly, people deeply engrosed in marriages or permanent relationships have not had the same opportunity for personal growth and can be considered less developed and lacking strength of selfhood. Correspondingly, Catharine adopting the subject position of being single may function to retrospectively legitimise abstinence from relationships during phases of personal growth. This is generally considered preferable in order to facilitate an individual’s focus upon their journey through self discovery. Being single via the lack of appropriate men may also imply there is nothing lacking with her character in order to promote a positive image of herself. Thus, she has not missed anything through the lack of male partners and enjoying a vacuous lifestyle (lines 34-37). Catharine’s self-discovery era involved challenging times but is an investment in herself for a better future which is likely to entail a healthier romantic partnership.

Critique of the analysis

What kind of knowledge does a foucauldian discourse analysis aim to produce?

I have specifically chosen FDA for its evaluation of selfhood, subjectivity and power; engaging the critical strand of social constructionist psychology (Burr, 2003; Nightingale & Cromby, 1999) as opposed the discursive strand which focuses on how language functions in social interaction (McGhee, 2001, p.145). In the foucauldian context, discourse refers to systems of expert languages which establish distinct styles of communication, thus granting membership and imparting authority to those possessing that particular knowledge. Although Catharine does not explicity employ technologised discourse she does imbue the rhetoric of personal development to validate her account as a model of achievement (Fairclough, 2001, p.231). Discourse analysts are not so much concerned with establishing ‘truths’ but understanding how texts are used to present different versions of reality, and accordingly subscribe to relativism. FDA therefore has a firm social constructionist framework (Potter, 1996b). However, Parker (1998) adopts critical realism via Lacanian psychoanalytic ideas, and Potter & Wetherell’s (1987) version of discourse analysis focuses more upon the content of texts.

As with much interpretivist qualitative research, generalisability is not justified because various interpretations may be drawn from different readings of the same text. More so, readers cannot simply adopt someone else’s material-semiotic position (Pujol & Montenegro, 1999, p.93). The meanings I present do not pre-exist but are created via the interactive process with various material and symbolic positions (see reflexive statement, appendix-iv). Most discourse analysis is anti-realist, rejecting reality exists independently of the research context or any representational concepts, be they mental or physical. FDA demonstrates a critical analysis of discourse by considering wider societal contexts as opposed the interpersonal context tackled by Conversation Analysis (CA) and discursive psychology. Although the text presented here is not constructed through interpersonal communication, drawing a comparison between FDA and CA evokes the respective macro-micro debate in discursive psychology. Various authors describe these discursive practices in different ways but they are strictly analytics rather than prescribing models of behaviour from which hypotheses may directly be tested. However, qualitative researchers specifically use FDA to understand how concepts are constructed, in order to inform further research or refute existing knowledge. The analysis of Catharine’s text clearly displaces the perception of where being forty is located within the lifecourse.

Whilst six stages of analysis are presented in qualitative textbooks as distinct phases (Smith, 2003, pp.171-183; Willig, 2001, pp.106-124) I found them to be highly interwoven, especially distinguishing between discursive constructions (stage 1) and wider discourses (stage 2). This is because each constructs the other and their decomposition requires time-consuming systematic procedures, analogous with grounded-theory and inductive thematic analysis. However, it should be distinguished that traditional qualitative thematic analysis adopts a realist epistemology which endeavours to inductively reflect reality (Hayes, 2000, pp.173-179; Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

What understanding can be drawn from a foucauldian discourse analysis?

Crucially, all discourse analytics treat language as active. More importantly, FDA recognises people create both hybridisations and numerous versions of reality by selecting various elements from a range of possible discourses to suit different social contexts, including attempts to achieve agency. All forms of discourse analysis attend to the context that data are produced so these contexts may be incorporated into the analysis. FDA provides a survey of the way discourses construct social and psychological realities which make available certain ways-of-seeing and certain ways-of-being. FDA has the strong distinguishing feature of allowing for contrasting positionings of subjectivity. Variations within the same discourse reveal contradictions and uncertainties which enable analysts to consider different processes at work. This is demonstrated in my analysis of Catharine’s problematic subject positioning in a relationship discourse since she craves the romance and commitment of a male companion but firmly rejects the usual implications of childbearing. This explains the power discourses can exert upon subjectivities, exemplifying Western society’s history for replicating the nuclear family. Subject positions therefore locate discursive sites from which to speak and act rather than merely specifying a particular role to be acted out. Catharine’s quandary represents shifting contemporary discourses about women’s roles in society and parenthood in general (Dyson, 1993). In FDA, subject positions are not linear but tree-like. Understanding these discursive positionings is vital because they function in diverse ways for social actors to experience subjectivity and transform established discourses, such as conceptual traditions (e.g. marriage, sexuality) as well as organised establishments (e.g. education, law).

The approach of FDA considerably differs to CA which only deals with rule-based systems regarding naturally occurring talk or discursive psychology which examines the purposive expressions of language (Harré & Stearns, 1995; Holloway, 1997, p.48). FDA focuses upon the way discursive objects and subjects are constructed by the use of discourse and upon the subjective positioning of social actors within their use of discourse. This is paramount for foucaudlian researchers since certain practices become legitimate forms of behaviour within particular discourses, which in-turn replicate the discourses they create. In my analysis, the accommodation of Catharine’s distinctive positions of the discursive object are incongruous within the same ageing discourse, i.e. negative physical effects occur alongside positive personal growth. Interestingly, CA acknowledges silences as achieving certain goals in particular contexts and FDA recognises absences in discourse as purposive. This is not so relevant here because Catharine presents a reflexive identity which includes her shortcomings, as well as those of past partners, in fitting with the context of the text which promotes personal responsibility (appendix-i).

What epistemological register does foucauldian discourse analysis focus on?

Textual analytics draw from different intellectual traditions (FDA - Post-structuralist, Marxist, Feminist; CA - Ethnomethodology, linguistics). The sources of data which FDA and CA draw upon markedly differ. Text for FDA becomes a heuristic device to explore data that can exist independently of the researcher. Similarly, CA primarily deals with naturally occurring talk but uses highly descriptive and complex transcriptions (Silverman, 2001, pp.159-192). FDA offers greater flexibility of application to any symbolic system whilst CA analyses the mechanics of interaction at both talk and non-verbal levels. Unlike FDA, CA has been criticised for being reductionistic because of its minute fragmentation of social interaction, being termed ‘molecular sociology’ (Lynch, 1993, cited in Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p.492). This formalism of CA is very unlike the social constructionism of FDA. Consequently, CA is criticised as losing the significance of wider social networks by ignoring cultural styles of talk and noticeably reverses conventional understandings of human agency.

FDA and CA are implemented for different research questions involving particular epistemological challenges. FDA explores “what characterises the social worlds people inhabit and what are the implications for practice” and is thus a version of critical discourse analysis associated with the legitimation of power. Foucault expressly conceived social institutions operate in ways that appear natural, thus veiling the power of discourses which generally function to constrain discursive objects and subjectivities. FDA concerns a predominantly ‘top-down’ approach to analysing discourse whilst CA is more ‘bottom-up’ through giving primacy to everyday methods that people employ to manage stake via interpersonal communications. However, social actors are concurrently implicated as manipulators of discourse to achieve human agency in line with social constructionist perspectives. More crucially, since we are all users of discourse the findings of FDA are more accessible to the population as opposed the rhetorical boundaries of scientific disciplines. CA and discursive psychology explore “how people use language to manage stake in social interaction”. This parallels with the simultaneous active construction of discourse in FDA as articulated by Wittgenstein’s ‘language games’ which relate language with not only what it represents but as already being a ‘form of life’ (Wittgenstein, 1953, cited in Forrester, 1996, p.45). Whilst this identifies the reflexive maintenance and construction of discourse, FDA generally claims that discourses limit what can be said and done by people (Willig, 2001, p.122).

The kind of knowledge generated by FDA and all discourse analysis exemplifies the quests in the qualitative research paradigm. These analytics acknowledge the interpretivist tradition by aiming to identify ways in which particular versions of reality are constructed through language and other textual sources, as opposed trying to discover the ‘true nature’ of reality or inert psychological and social phenomena. Textual analytics go beyond the exploratory level to offer thick descriptions. The knowledge yielded by FDA focuses upon relationships between discourse and institutional sites which often challenges mainstream knowledge. It identifies how people construct objects and subjects without necessarily accepting priori understandings, whilst incorporating historical contexts.

Limitations of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

A major problem for FDA is to what extent subjectivity can be conceived upon the basis of discourse alone (Burr, 2003, pp.104-125). This clearly emerges with Catharine’s ‘surge of sexiness’ which I interpret as potentially originating from a her biological clock or the socially constructed discourse about fulfilling womanhood. This queries the reliability of subject positions and what exactly is involved with constructing personal identities, apart from discourse alone. Consequently the relationship between discourse and material reality is problematic for FDA, and critics question what exists beyond discourse? (Burr, 2003, pp.81-103; Parker & Burman, 1993). Fairclough (1992, p.60) argues for a dialectic vision of FDA since discursive practice depends upon how it interacts with a preconstituted reality, resonating with Peircean semiotics (Forrester, 1996, p.139). The dilemma about these questions lie within ontological social constructionist arguments that discourses are constantly undergoing a state of flux. Hence, this conceptualisation of the world presents difficulties to researchers of the positivist tradition because there is no finite recognition of essentialist qualities.

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Facsimile of the original article and the magazine’s philosophy

(Source: Stott, 2003, The 39 steps. The Spark, Issue 35, p.52. Bristol: Blue Sax Publishing Ltd)

Data prepared with highlighted discursive constructions

(Source: Stott, 2003, The 39 steps. The Spark, Issue 35, p.52. Bristol: Blue Sax Publishing Ltd)

Rose and I are in a club with an increasingly ageing membership. In 1995 I was bemoaning the fact that I was about to reach the unbelievable age of 31. “Join the club,” she said, and three days later, much against my will, I did. And so on down the decade, until this year we both joined the ‘39 Club’, and received the complimentary chin tweezers given to every new member. Being in my thirties has been the most fun I’ve had. Far more so than my teenage years of black moods, footless tights and snogs with boys I didn’t know I could say no to. Way more fun than my twenties, trying to develop a thin veneer of maturity and to work for a living while being almost constantly out of my head and wondering why I couldn’t stop. I’ve spent my thirties doing the growing up I should have done before. It’s been a nine year rollercoaster ride of self-discovery. The highs and lows have levelled out as I’ve tackled low self-worth, deep childhood pain and finely-honed the skill of committing to an unavailable male. I received my PhD in the last subject long ago, and have turned down the full professorship. But, oh, 39! I’ve been dreading it, remembering that 29 was full of deep foreboding about being thirty and therefore past it. Turns out I wasn’t, and I won’t be at forty either. Because, and thank you God, forty is the new thirty, and these days you’re not past it till you’re dead. The other great thing about approaching forty is that I’m becoming what is known in the trade as pre-menopausal. This has its negative side: nipples pointing down instead of up, chin sprouts, stretch marks that have nothing to do with childbirth and everything to do with age and see-sawing weight, and shop assistants calling me ‘Madam’. But there is an upside to this hormonal shift. As my oestrogen dips and the eggs shrivel inside me, my testosterone levels are correspondingly higher (hence the chin sprouts) and therefore low-self worth disappears and confidence reigns supreme. Along with this comes a surge of sexiness as my body shouts at me, “hey, you, this is your last chance for motherhood, get out there, get laid and have that 43 hour labour ending in a caesarean”. Oh I love it, because although men are terribly appealing to me, babies aren’t and I don’t have to become a desperate woman. So I said goodbye and thanks for all the lonesome Saturday nights to Mr Unavailable. After a lifetime of eking out an existence on crumbs of love and attention, enough was enough. It was time to do that thing so recommended by spiritual laws: let go absolutely of any expectations and enjoy the moment. I became single in name as well as reality (it’s okay folks, he never reads The Spark) and waited for something with substance. I gave up hoping for Mr Right-on with six organic acres in the Cotswolds, and set about being old, single and living in the city. It was scary, swapping almost nothing for absolutely nothing, but I’d get through with fluffy romping novels, going out with my friends and bulk-buys from the electrical department of Ann Summers. I settled in for the recommended six months to a year between men. Three weeks later I had brief moment[s] of picturing the ex’s face, but having no idea what his name was. Result! I grabbed another novel, and went to the beach with my mates. What I was not prepared for was to fall for one of them as we walked along the sand arguing over the morals of exhibiting plasticised dead bodies in the name of medicine. I found myself doing underwater handstands and jumping fifteen feet into deep cold rock pools in an effort to impress him, and it worked. This was what the books recommend - getting to know someone platonically until one day they become irresistible, rather than sleeping with someone you’ve never met before and then gluing yourself to them. I always thought that was sound advice, but sadly not applicable to me because I was almost past it. And certainly not with this friend because he was seven years younger than me and I assumed he preferred breasts that don’t need a Wonderbra to pass the pencil test. So goodbye crumbs and hello feasting, literally. We’ve stuffed our faces on the beach, had several sofa picnics, and now we’re working our way round the city’s set menus, starting with strawberry soup in Bell’s Diner. We have pissed off our mutual fiends with our disinterest in them. And I’ve discovered teenage infatuation without the puberty-ridden angst - snogging on canal boats, holding hands, dates, movies, laughing, midnight bat fishing at Crewe’s Hole (no bats harmed I promise), and best of all, no parents to say “what time do you call this?” as I stumble home at 5am... Thirty-nine is my best ever birthday. If this is middle age, I say bring it on. Goodbye thirties, and hello roaring forties.

Procedures for Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

(Source: Willig, 2001, pp.109-118)

Stage 1: Discursive Constructions

The first stage of analysis is concerned with the ways in which discursive objects are constructed. Which discursive object we focus on depends on our research question. For example, if we are interested in how people talk about ‘love’ and with what consequences, our discursive object would be ‘love’. The first stage of analysis involves the identification of the different ways in which the discursive object is constructed in the text. This requires that we highlight all instances of reference to the discursive object. As mentioned in the previous chapter, it is important that we do not simply look for keywords. Both implicit and explicit references need to be included. Our search for constructions of the discursive object is guided by shared meaning rather than lexical comparability. The fact that a text does not contain a direct reference to the discursive object can tell us a lot about the way in which the object is constructed. For example, someone may talk about a relative’s terminal illness without directly naming it. Here, references to ‘it’, ‘this awful thing’ or ‘the condition’ construct the discursive object (i.e. terminal illness) as something unspeakable and perhaps also unknowable.

Stage 2: Discourses

Having identified all sections of text that contribute to the construction of the discursive object, we focus on the differences between constructions. What appears to be one and the same discursive object can be constructed in very different ways. The second stage of analysis aims to locate the various discursive constructions of the object within wider discourses. For example, within the context of an interview about her experience of her husband’s prostate cancer, a woman may draw on a biomedical discourse when she talks about the process of diagnosis and treatment, a psychological discourse when she explains why she thinks her husband developed the illness in the first place, and a romantic discourse when she describes how she and her husband find the strength to fight the illness together. Thus, the husband’s illness is constructed as a biochemical disease process, as the somatic manifestation of psychological traits, and as the enemy in a battle between good (the loving couple) and evil (separation through death) within the same text.

Stage 3: Action Orientation

The third stage of analysis involves a closer examination of the discursive contexts within which the different constructions of the object are being deployed. What is gained from constructing the object in this particular way at this particular point within the text? What is its function and how does it relate to other constructions produced in the surrounding text? These questions are concerned with what has been referred to as the action orientation of talk and text in the previous chapter. To return to our example of a wife talking about her husband’s cancer, it may be that her use of biomedical discourse allows her to attribute responsibility for diagnosis and treatment to medical professionals and to emphasize that her husband is being taken good care of. Her use of romantic discourse may have been produced in response to a question about her own role in her husband’s recovery after surgery and may have served to emphasize that she is, in fact, contributing significantly to his recovery. Finally, psychological discourse may have been used to account for her husband’s cancer in order to disclaim responsibility for sharing in a carcinogenic lifestyle (e.g. ‘I told him to slow down and take better care of himself but he wouldn’t listen’). A focus on action orientation allows us to gain a clearer understanding of what the various constructions of the discursive object are capable of achieving within the text.

Stage 4: Positionings

Having identified the various constructions of the discursive object within the text, and having located them within wider discourses, we now take a closer look at the subject positions which they offer. A subject position within a discourse identifies ‘a location for persons within the structure of rights and duties for those who use that repertoire’ (Davies and Harre 1999: 35). In other words, discourses construct subjects as well as objects and, as a result, make available positions within networks of meaning that speakers can take up (as well as place others within). For example, Hollway’s (1989) ‘discourse of male sexual drive’ contains the subject position of the instinct-driven male sexual predator, whilst the Have/Hold Discourse positions both men and women as highly socialized moral actors. Subject positions are different from roles in that they offer discursive locations from which to speak and act rather than prescribing a particular part to be acted out. In addition, roles can be played without subjective identification, whereas taking up a subject position has direct implications for subjectivity (see Stage 6 below).

Stage 5: Practice

This stage is concerned with the relationship between discourse and practice. It requires a systematic exploration of the ways in which discursive constructions and the subject positions contained within them open up or close down opportunities for action. By constructing particular versions of the world, and by positioning subjects within them in particular ways, discourses limit what can be said and done. Furthermore, non-verbal practices can, and do, form part of discourses.

For example, the practice of unprotected sex has been found to be bound up with a marital discourse that constructs marriage and its equivalent, the ‘longterm relationship’, as incompatible with the use of condoms (Willig 1995). Thus, certain practices become legitimate forms of behaviour from within particular discourses. Such practices, in turn, reproduce the discourses which legitimate them. In this way, speaking and doing support one another in the construction of subjects and objects. Stage 5 of the analysis of discourse maps the possibilities for action contained within the discursive constructions identified in the text.

Stage 6: Subjectivity

The final stage in the analysis explores the relationship between discourse and subjectivity. Discourses make available certain ways-of-seeing the world and certain ways-of-being in the world. They construct social as well as psychological realities. Discursive positioning plays an important role in this process. As Davies and Harre (1999: 35) stated “Once having taken up a particular position as one’s own, a person inevitably sees the world from the vantage point of that position and in terms of the particular images, metaphors, storylines and concepts which are made relevant within the particular discursive practice in which they are positioned.” This stage in the analysis traces the consequences of taking up various subject positions for the participants’ subjective experience. Having asked questions about what can be said and done from within different discourses (Stage 5), we are now concerned with what can be felt, thought and experienced from within various subject positions. For example, it may be that positioning himself within a discourse of male sexual drive allows a man not only to publicly disclaim responsibility for an act of sexual aggression, but to actually feel less guilty about it as well.

The Serenity Prayer

(Source: Open-mind, 2004; originally conceived in 1932 by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr of the Union Theological Society)

God grant me the serenity…

To accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

and Wisdom to know the difference.

Marxist and Feminist Subjectivity

(Source: Parker, 2003, pp.4-5)

Subjectivity is theorised here, then, as both entirely conditioned by the social and as always necessarily agentic. It is one of the conditions of capitalism, for example, that people should actively participate in economic relationships that are socially and personally destructive. When someone sells their labour power, they do so because they would otherwise starve, but they do so in a creative act of production, the very thing that the buyer of their time finds so valuable and which yields a surplus value for further investment and employment. In the process, the worker is also turned into a commodity to be bought and sold along with the fruits of their labour, and a sense of things being separate and exchangeable accords with that social reality. Marxism, then, draws attention to the commodification of relationships as a characteristic of modern culture, and two further aspects of the work of culture are also highlighted. The first is that the dead weight of the past sets the boundaries for how for someone entangled in a culture can reflect upon their position, and the second is that the different relationships that are set up between workers and employers, and between workers and workers, reproduce contradictions in which critical reflection, a critical distance can be developed.

Feminism also matches the Marxist view of subjectivity as an ensemble of social relations with an insistence that 'the personal is political', that is, that each most private activity is woven into shared collective relations of power that structure gender. In research, then, the supposedly neutral and objective activity of finding out 'facts' is itself saturated with subjective investments, and the fantasy that a correct view of the world can be obtained through the exercise of independent inquiry is an expression of masculine concerns with separation, order and control. Feminism in sociology (e.g., Stanley and Wise, 1983) and then in psychology (e.g., Wilkinson, 1988) has brought this issue to the fore in considerations of women's experience and through reflexive analysis in qualitative research, and feminist discourse analysis has tempered objectivist Marxism with a reminder that the most objective account is always from a particular position (Hollway, 1989).

My Identity and Reflexive Statement

As an MSc student of qualitative methods in psychology I have recently developed an interest for social constructionist ideas. Amid an academic culture of feminism I intend to disrupt gender boundaries by performing an analysis upon a woman’s text to demonstrate that I am sensitive to both gender orientations. Character wise, I have many female qualities and am interested in female issues because I see these focusing upon everyday life which is more important to me than global issues. I am an avid listener of ‘Woman’s Hour’ (BBC Radio 4, 92.4-94.6 fm) which attracts men as a third of its audience. However, whilst embracing the critical mode of feminism I am resistant of the gender mode because it does that which it set out to change, i.e. operating from one gender epistemological register. I have achieved much personal growth and strongly identify with Catharine’s experiences. Some of the lessons she mentions are incorporated in my own life, particularly about forming healthier relationships and living more simply. Psychologically, I have attended psychotherapeutic counselling, group therapy and self-help groups; having dealt with personal issues around parental death, co-dependancy and a dysfunctional family. Spiritually, I have attended Buddhist meditations and talks and was interested in rastafarianism for many years. These promote healthy lifestyles and vegetarianism.

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Appendix - iii

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Appendix - iv

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