A Cultural Approach to Discourse

Drawing on diverse cultural perspectives, Shi-xu critiques ethnocentrism in discourse studies in terms of its intellectual and cultural consequences. Further, he outlines a culturally pluralist stance that advocates the construction of theory and use of methodology from an innovative position in-between Eastern and Western cultures. In addition, he proposes a set of practical research strategies, illustrated by a number of culturally wide-ranging discourses, to send out a call to discourse analysts who want to look beyond familiar approaches for a culturally diversified and critical form of discourse research relevant to contemporary globalised realities.

Shi-xu is Professor and Director of the Institute of Discourse and Cultural Studies, Zhejiang University, China, and was previously Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam, Lecturer at the National University of Singapore, and Reader at the University of Ulster, UK. His other books in English include Cultural Representations, Read the Cultural Other (lead-editor) and Discourse as Cultural Struggle (editor). He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Multicultural Discourses.

Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART I: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
Discourse and Reality
Introduction
Representationalism
A Reality-Constitutive View of Discourse
Meaning and Context
Conclusion
Discourse and Culture
Introduction
The Universalist Discourse
Critical Studies of Culture
Theorizing from In-Between Cultures
A Pluralist Account of Discourse
The Goals of CAD
Conclusion
Political Ethnography
Introduction
Foundationalism versus Interpretivism
An In-Between-Cultural Stance
Discourse Research Strategies
Conclusion
PART II: PRACTICAL STUDIES
Deconstructing the Other Place
Introduction
The Construction of the Other Place and Contradiction
Imperialist Pleasure and Prejudice
Conclusion
Reading Non-Western Discourses
Introduction
Discourse and Reading Cultural Others
Contextualizing Research on Non-Western Discourse
Making Sense out of the Other's Accounts
Conclusion
Fanning the Sparks of Hope from History
Introduction
Identity: A Historical-Comparative Approach
The Reconstruction of Historical Data
Analysing Discourses of Identity
Conclusion
Promoting New Discourses of the Other
Introduction
Intercultural Studies
Power in Intercultural Communication
Formulating and Warranting New Discourses of Cultural Others
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index