Discourse and Ideology
A Critique of the Study of Culture
1st Edition
Published on 18. November 2021
296 pages
978-1-350-24630-0 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for the American Academy of Religion's Analytical-Descriptive Studies Book Award 2023
Drawing on poststructuralist approaches, Craig Martin outlines a theory of discourse, ideology, and domination that can be used by scholars and students to understand these central elements in the study of culture.
The book shows how discourses are used to construct social institutions-often classist, sexist, or racist-and that those social institutions always entail a distribution of resources and capital in ways that capacitate some subject positions over others. Such asymmetrical power relations are often obscured by ideologies that offer demonstrably false accounts of why those asymmetries exist or persist.
The author provides a method of reading in order to bring matters into relief, and the last chapter provides a case study that applies his theory and method to racist ideologies in the United States, which systematically function to discourage white Americans from sympathizing with poor African Americans, thereby contributing to reinforcing the latter's place at the bottom of a racial hierarchy that has always existed in the US.
Drawing on poststructuralist approaches, Craig Martin outlines a theory of discourse, ideology, and domination that can be used by scholars and students to understand these central elements in the study of culture.
The book shows how discourses are used to construct social institutions-often classist, sexist, or racist-and that those social institutions always entail a distribution of resources and capital in ways that capacitate some subject positions over others. Such asymmetrical power relations are often obscured by ideologies that offer demonstrably false accounts of why those asymmetries exist or persist.
The author provides a method of reading in order to bring matters into relief, and the last chapter provides a case study that applies his theory and method to racist ideologies in the United States, which systematically function to discourage white Americans from sympathizing with poor African Americans, thereby contributing to reinforcing the latter's place at the bottom of a racial hierarchy that has always existed in the US.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN-13
978-1-350-24630-0 (9781350246300)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
12/2021
Bloomsbury Academic
€52.18
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Craig Martin is Professor of Religious Studies at St. Thomas Aquinas College, USA. He is the author of Capitalizing Religion: Ideology and the Opiate of the Bourgeoisie (Bloomsbury, 2014) and co-editor of Stereotyping Religion: Critiquing Clichés (Bloomsbury, 2017). He is the series editor for Critiquing Religion: Discourse, Culture, Power.
Content
Preface
Introduction: Contingency
1. Critique
2. Things
3. Discourse
4. Domination
5. Ideology
6. Recrement
7. Case Study: Racist Ideology in the US
Coda
Bibliography
Index
Introduction: Contingency
1. Critique
2. Things
3. Discourse
4. Domination
5. Ideology
6. Recrement
7. Case Study: Racist Ideology in the US
Coda
Bibliography
Index
