The "French" Discourse analysis approach to political discourse

Joint DESIRE-ECHO Research Seminar with Dominique Maingueneau
Brussels
​24.1.25

Dominique Maingueneau is one of the most eminent figures of French Discourse Analysis, in his talk he will first outline the conditions under which ‘French’ discourse analysis emerged as a specific approach to discourse analysis. He will then present the main characteristics of French Discourse Analysis and some of its analytical categories. He will also look at two examples taken from political discourse: a speech by B. Obama during the 2007 American presidential election and a text in which José Bové, the same year, presented his candidacy for the French presidential election. Finally, he will discuss the notion of ‘discursive ethos’, which plays an important role in the analysis of ‘French’ discourse.

Dominique Maingueneau is a professor of linguistics at the Faculty of French Language, at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. His research focuses on French linguistics and discourse analysis. He associates a pragmatic outlook on discourse with linguistic “enunciation” theories and M. Foucault’s Archeology. He is currently working on political discourse and “self-constituting discourses” (philosophical, religious, scientific, literary...), that legitimate the whole discursive production. He published many books, including Discours et Analyse du discours (Paris, Armand Colin, 2014) and with J. Angermuller and R. Wodak: The Discourse Studies Reader. Main trends in theory and analysis (John Benjamins, 2014). You can access Maingueneau's website here and his work on Google Scholar here.