Exploring ‘The Past’ in French Identity-Politics Discourse

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201215.012How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Political discourse, presidential campaign, historical references, interactional strategies, national identity

Abstract

People may notice that the speeches of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen in their presidential campaigns, in terms of their quality, were different from those of other presidential candidates. They use particular discursive strategies to promote their own political interests, with historical references easing audiences’ understanding of their political discourses and contributing to their image and identity. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate how these presidential candidates used historical references to convey their intent and promote their platforms. This investigation, which is conducted on Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen’s speeches, is done through discourse analysis approach in order to discover the candidates’ interactional strategies reflecting the relationship between discursive situations when the speeches were delivered and their verbal acts. The candidates’ speeches are compiled into a lexicographic, textual corpus. The data is extracted using qualitative data software NVIVO and analyzed using Van Dijk’s discourse analysis theory. The findings show that historical references support the process of interactional communication, and they hold the power of symbols. This study should contribute to discourse studies that attempt to understand the relevance of the use of language to the construction strategy of political discourse.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Aprillia Firmonasari
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/12/17
TI  - Exploring ‘The Past’ in French Identity-Politics Discourse
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (ICOLLITE 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 75
EP  - 82
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201215.012
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201215.012
ID  - Firmonasari2020
ER  -