Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse Series Editors Johannes Angermuller University of Warwick Coventry, United Kingdom Judith Baxter Aston University Birmingham, United Kingdom
Aim of the Series Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse engages in the exchange between discourse theory and analysis while putting emphasis on the intellectual challenges in discourse research. Moving beyond disciplinary divisions in today's social sciences, the contributions deal with critical issues at the intersections between language and society. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14534
Jodie Clark Selves, Bodies and the Grammar of Social Worlds Reimagining Social Change
Jodie Clark Department of English Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield, United Kingdom Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse ISBN 978-1-137-59842-4 ISBN 978-1-137-59843-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59843-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939243 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London
To my father, Roger E. Clark, with my love and my thanks.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the participants whose stories and conversations I share in this book. I am also grateful to the Humanities Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University for awarding me a period of study leave in which to write the book. As always, heartfelt thanks to my husband, Mark, who encourages me to delight in the discovery of new ideas. vii
CONTENTS 1 Grammar and Social Worlds 1 1.1 A View from Above 2 1.2 Reimagining Social Structures 3 1.3 A View from the Trenches 4 1.4 Harsh Reality : The Problem of Practice 5 1.5 The Grammar of Social Change 7 2 Structures, Centres and Transformation 13 2.1 Practice Theory and the Limits of Virtual Structure 15 2.2 Structures, Centres and Deferral 17 2.3 Perspectives on Social Change 20 2.3.1 Butler: Self-Detachment 20 2.3.2 Irigaray: Reintegration 22 2.4 The Multiplicity of Structures, Centres and Modes of Transformation 25 3 The Empirical Project of Imagining Social Change 31 3.1 Transformation from Within (the Text) 32 3.2 Possibilities from Beyond 33 3.3 Analysis as Imagination 35 3.4 The Analytic Method 35 3.5 The Textually Constituted Self as a Locus for Transformation 40 3.6 The Empirical Project 41 ix
x CONTENTS 3.6.1 The Problem with Intervention 41 3.6.2 Critical Participants 42 3.6.3 Uncritical Participants 45 3.6.4 The Uncritical Researcher 46 4 Selves, Bodies, Centres 49 4.1 Mary as Absent Centre of a Heteronormative Structure 50 4.2 Mary as Present Centre of a Heteronormative Structure 56 4.3 The Self at the Centre 58 4.4 The Body as Mediator 60 4.5 Transformation from the Centre: Getting Out v. My World Changed 64 5 The Embodying Community 69 5.1 Discovering the Language that Speaks Corporeal 70 5.2 The Social World as Body 71 5.3 The Human Body Erased 77 6 The Social Body 79 6.1 The Human Body At Issue 80 6.2 Rights and Property in a Capitalist Social Body 81 6.3 Revisioning the Social Body 83 6.4 The Sovereign Body 84 6.5 The Healthy Social Body 85 6.6 Incorporating the Human Body 87 6.7 Disconnect from the Social Body: The Panopticon 88 6.8 The Dangerous Human Body 90 6.9 The Transformative Potential of the Human Body 91 7 Disruptive Bodies 93 7.1 Centres, Revisioned 93 7.2 Possibilities from the Panopticon 95 7.3 The Unstable Self 96 7.4 The Unspecified Self 101 7.5 Transformation as Disruption 104 7.6 Disruption as Threat 108
CONTENTS xi 7.6.1 The Disruptive Body as Threat to Stability 111 7.6.2 The Disruptive Body as Threat to the Collective 115 7.6.3 The Disruptive Body as Threat to Anonymity 118 8 Openings 123 8.1 From the Meaning System to the Social Body 124 8.2 The Selves and Bodies of Unexpected Visitors 125 8.3 The Unexpected Body 129 8.4 The Queer Body at the Centre 130 8.5 Reimagining Social Change 134 Appendix 137 1.1 Transcription Conventions 137 Index 139
LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 4.1 Topical Themes (underlined) in Mary s account, lines 43 54 57 Fig. 4.2 First-person singular (underlined) in oppositional relationship with third-person plural (italics) 63 Fig. 5.1 Clauses depicting static location at the time of Lewis s death 76 Fig. 5.2 Clauses depicting static location simultaneous with hearing the news of Lewis s death 76 Fig. 5.3 Clauses depicting movement towards Machcliffe in terms of static location 76 Fig. 7.1 Clauses with time-phase mood elements in Chrissy s account of Nemo 113 Fig. 7.2 Generic you in Chrissy s account of Nemo 114 Fig. 7.3 Clauses in Sammy s narrative about Nemo 116 Fig. 7.4 Clauses in Ally s contribution to Sammy s narrative 119 xiii
LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Transitivity analysis of the clauses depicting the face of that policeman 39 Table 3.2 Clauses with plural and singular Subjects from Extract 3.1 44 Table 4.1 Projection as a means of making other participants the centre of their experiences 54 Table 4.2 Mary s lack of knowledge, paralleled with Jodie s, through the use of projection 55 Table 4.3 Transitivity of the projected clauses in Mary s account (lines 19 27) 55 Table 4.4 Marked topical Themes in Mary s account (lines 13 14) 56 Table 4.5 Marked topical Themes in Mary s account (lines 41 43) 56 Table 4.6 Actors and Sensers in the material and mental processes in Mary s account (lines 43 54) 58 Table 4.7 Transitivity of clauses from Fig. 4.1 63 Table 4.8 Parallelism in clause complexes in Beth s account, Extract 4.3, lines 1 and 14 67 Table 4.9 Beth as primary participant in relational processes 67 Table 4.10 Overarching structure of Beth s account of being bullied 67 Table 5.1 The terms in Beth s description of her social world 70 Table 5.2 Transitivity analysis of clauses construing the wrong crowd and the good group 74 Table 5.3 Possessive relational clauses in lines 1 4 of Extract 5.1 74 Table 7.1 Structure of the hypotactic clause complex in Extract 7.1, lines 1 7 97 Table 7.2 Thematic structure of the dependent clauses in Table 7.1 98 Table 7.3 Structure of the hypotactic clause complex in Extract 7.1, lines 25 6 99 xv
xvi LIST OF TABLES Table 7.4 Transitivity analysis of the processes assigned to human agents in Chrissy s account (Extract 7.2) 102 Table 7.5 Structure of the clause construct in Extract 7.2, lines 2 4 102 Table 7.6 Structure of the clause complex in Extract 7.2, line 8 102 Table 7.7 Conjugation of can/could tell and don t do 104 Table 7.8 Comparison of the clause complexes that initiate Ally s Table 7.9 and Sammy s accounts 107 Thematic analysis of Chrissy s account of Nemo (as an individual) in relation to the team (as a collective) 112 Table 7.10 Clauses with and without first-person reference in Sammy s account of Nemo 117 Table 7.11 Material clauses in Ally s contribution to Sammy s narrative 119 Table 8.1 Table 8.2 Topical Themes and Rhemes in Andrew s account in Extract 8.1, lines 1 15 132 Transitivity of the first clause in Andrew s account in Extract 8.1 133