Discourse and Practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis, By: Theo van Leeuwen, Publisher: Oxford University Press

Language and other semiotic modes represent and construe our everyday realities – whether in children’s books, newspaper stories, brochures, photography, or toys – as Theo van Leeuwen shows in his new book Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis.

The book brings together his discourse analytical research of the past 15 years. It takes you on a journey into how we can analyse discourses, representations of reality, and social practices as well interactions between them.

Combining concepts from sociology, linguistics and semiotics, in particular focussing on Bernstein’s notion of recontextualisation, the book examines semiotic – both linguistic and visual – representations of social actors and social action, the notions of time and space in discourse, and discursive constructions of legitimation and purpose.

While the main focus is on language, it makes important inroads into the analysis of non-linguistic representations and opens up space for further explorations in this area. Crucially, the book provides a toolkit for systematic analysis and insightful interpretation and will be welcomed by students and researchers across the social sciences and across continents.

Monika Bednarek
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Theo van Leeuwen is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.