A Cultural Approach to Discourse

A Cultural Approach to Discourse

Also by Shi-xu CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS READ THE CULTURAL OTHER (coedited with M. Kienpointner and J. Servaes) Journal edited by Shi-xu JOURNAL OF MULTICULTURAL DISCOURSES

A Cultural Approach to Discourse Shi-xu Professor of Discourse and Cultural Studies Zhejiang University, China

Shi-xu 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-4334-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-57762-6 ISBN 978-0-230-50539-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230505391 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shi-xu A cultural approach to discourse / Shi-xu. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Discourse analysis Social aspects. 2. Language and culture. I. Title. P302.84.S538 2004 306.44 dc22 2004054294 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

To Sander and your future cultural life

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Contents Preface and Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Part I Theory and Methodology 1 Discourse and Reality 13 Introduction 13 Representationalism 14 A reality-constitutive view of discourse 18 Meaning and context 33 Conclusion 40 2 Discourse and Culture 42 Introduction 42 The universalist discourse 44 Critical studies of culture 51 Theorizing from in-between cultures 57 A pluralist account of discourse 59 The goals of CAD 67 Conclusion 68 3 Political Ethnography 71 Introduction 71 Foundationalism versus interpretivism 74 An in-between cultural stance 86 Discourse research strategies 90 Conclusion 100 Part II Practical Studies 4 Deconstructing the Other Place 105 Introduction 105 The construction of the Other Place and contradiction 107 Imperialist pleasure and prejudice 111 Conclusion 129 vii

viii Contents 5 Reading Non-Western Discourses 132 Introduction 132 Discourse and reading cultural others 133 Contextualizing research on non-western discourse 139 Making sense out of the Other s accounts 144 Conclusion 162 6 Fanning the Sparks of Hope from History 165 Introduction 165 Identity: a historical-comparative approach 167 The reconstitution of historical data 173 Analysing discourses of identity 175 Conclusion 196 7 Promoting New Discourses of the Other 199 Introduction 199 Intercultural studies 200 Power in intercultural communication 202 Formulating and warranting new discourses of cultural others 204 Conclusion 210 Notes 212 References 216 Author Index 228 Subject Index 231

Preface and Acknowledgements I have intended this book first of all for students and teachers in discourse studies (including discourse analysis, speech communication and media studies). For them, I have tried, among other things, to advocate a culturally pluralist, in particular in-between-cultural, approach to language, communication and discourse. Moreover, I have meant this book for researchers and scholars in the other social sciences, particularly cultural studies. For them, I have tried to introduce a more languageoriented approach to their subject matter, be it social, cultural or psychological. Finally, I hope that the contemporary culturalist endeavour will provide stimulation for opening up new cultural research to those individuals who sense the profound importance of interacting with worldviews, theories, methods, issues, topics and data other than those of their own cultures. I would like to express my gratitude to Lee Cherleng and Manfred Kienpointner for supplying some of the analytical data used in Chapter 5, and to David Pettigrew and Niall Burns at the University of Ulster for providing information support. I must also acknowledge the gracious assistance of my students in the Netherlands, Singapore and the United Kingdom in collecting some of the data for this book. I gratefully acknowledge that parts of chapters 5 and 7 have appeared in my papers published in the Journal of International Communication (co-author, 2003, 9:2) and Journal of Intercultural Studies (2001, 22:3) respectively. But these chapters are much expanded and revised versions. In writing this book I have benefited literally from people all over the world, in particular those from the Netherlands, Singapore and the United Kingdom where I have lived and researched for the past 15 years. Their influence manifests in the book in more ways than they might even realize. Going back to the details here would probably embarrass them. I can only mention a few of my friends, mentors and colleagues here: (from the Netherlands) Teun van Dijk, Frans van Eemeren, Robert Maier, Els Weijiers, Gerrit van Vegel, Jan ten Thije, Veronica Ribalaygua, Tessa van Ham, Laura Vening, Wei-hua Chi, John Neubauer; (from Singapore) Desmond Allison, Peter Tan, Zhu Hui, Bao Zhiming, Anthony Guneratne, Terence Dawson; (from the UK) Kim Wooller, Emi Canclini, Martin Kraemer, Alice Tomic, Charles Antaki, Michael Billig, Darek Galazinski, Deborah and James Ryan, Heather Walker, Nicola ix

x Preface and Acknowledgements Schmidt-Remfree, Owen Hargie, John Wilson; and (in the world at large) Jaan Valsiner, Manfred Kienpointner, Galey Modan, Lawrence Wong, Kwokkan Tam, Monica Heller, Susan Erhlich, David Irwin, Robert Arundale, Shen Dan, Jan Blommaert, Michael Meeuwis, Marie-Thérèse and Ahmed Sahlane. To my editor, Jill Lake, I feel a special indebtedness, for taking up this project and for working through it with me. I must also thank my extended family for their love and for putting up with my absent-mindedness. I dedicate this book to my son, Sander, with concern and hope for whose future cultural world I say these words. SHI-XU