ABSTRACT
A radical view of CDA… emphasises the power behind discourse rather than just the power in discourse (how people with power shape the ‘order of discourse’ as well as the social order in general, versus how people with power control what happens in specific interactions such as interviews). It correspondingly emphasises ideology rather than (just) persuasion and manipulation. It views discourse as a stake in social struggle as well as a site of social struggle, and views social struggle as including class struggle. It sets as an objective for CDA raising people’s consciousness of how language contributes to the domination of some people by others, as a step towards social emancipation. This is radical stuff, one might say! But isn’t this just 1970s radicalism which is now terribly old-fashioned, out of date as well as out of fashion? I don’t think, so let me explain why.
