SOC561 IDEOLOGY AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
| Course Code: | 2320561 |
| METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week): | 3 (3.00 - 0.00) |
| ECTS Credit: | 8.0 |
| Department: | Sociology |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Study: | Graduate |
| Course Coordinator: | Assist.Prof.Dr KATHARINA BODIRSKY |
| Offered Semester: | Fall or Spring Semesters. |
Course Objectives
This course examines how critical social theorists have conceptualized the relation between systems of meaning and social relations of power. We will see how such conceptualizations entail different understandings of the social world, the subject, consciousness and knowledge, reality and representation, conformity and deviance, consent and resistance. We will explore the implications of these different conceptual frameworks for our attempts to understand particular social and political constellations. Prerequisite is a good knowledge of the theories of Marx, Foucault, and Bourdieu, on which we will build further in class.
Course Content
This course aims to study the trajectory of the categories of ´ideology´ and ´discourse´ in radical social thought with a focus upon the issues of ´constitution of meaning´ and ´constitution of subject´. The topics to be discussed throughout the course are as follows: Marxism and idelogy, ideology as false consciousness (Lukacs), the question of hegemony (Gramsci), ideology as interpellation (Althusser), signification theory of linguistics (Saussure), the priority of utterence (Voloshinov), archeological and genealogical readings of texts (Foucault), the discursiveness of the social (Laclau and Mouffe), and intertextuality (poststructuralism and Derrida).