Analyzing ideological complexes from the perspective of modalities

Abstract

Modalities are fundamental in building, maintaining and contesting ideological systems. While modalities have been described as resources for constructing both representational and interpersonal aspects of reality and truth, the analytical focus has been on modalities as a relationship between authors, their texts and their audiences, i.e. on their interpersonal functions. Informed by a framework on modalities for discourse analyses of values, Hodge and Kress’s theory on ideological complexes and Fairclough’s three-dimensional conception of discourse, in this paper I develop a method for examining modalities as resources for building dominant and counter discourses. I use example excerpts that come from my research on Finnish equality discourses to build and demonstrate the method. The example texts were written by people who are differently positioned in relation to salient norms and institutions on gender/sex and sociability: people contacted through a national random sample, people diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, and people with transgender experiences. The method allows not only for systematic examinations of how modalities function in ordering power-imbalanced interpersonal relations but also attends to an underexplored dimension dealing with how modalities work in ideological representation.

Immigration, Multiculturalism and Biopolitical Projects on ‘Difference’: Negotiating Intersecting Social Divisions From Positions of Privilege and Disadvantage

“…The responses that we analyse in this paper were produced by 19 Finnish citizens with transgender experiences and/or Asperger's diagnoses (Asperger diagnosed participants, n = 8; participants with transgender experiences, n = 10; Asperger diagnosed participants with transgender experiences, n = 1). These participants also participated in a previous study by the first author (see Menard 2016aMenard , 2016bMenard , 2018, and were recruited in collaboration with local autism and transgender support organisations as well as through online forum discussions. They self-selected based upon participant outreach materials, in which the research was specified as recruiting either Asperger-diagnosed persons or persons with transgender experiences.…”

Ideology in Critical Discourse Study: A Review of Literature

“…Overall, modality refers to the speaker/author's commitment to truth, reality, and knowledge, as well as the speaker/author's expression of necessity, desire, and ability. Therefore, modality expression is based on cognitive certainty, speaker image, interpersonal solidarity, and distance, as well as representations of values, identity, and ideology, involving a social order dominated by power and opposition (Menard, 2018). In short, modality itself has an ideological nature.…”

“…Expressions of modality thus build on ontological status, epistemic certainty, speaker images, interpersonal solidarity and distance, as well as representational aspects of values, identifications and ideologies. Menard (2018) analyzes pragmatic modality at the levels of text, discursive practices and social practices is helpful for understanding how power-imbalanced social relations intrude representation and, reciprocally, how those representations are drawn upon in ongoing social ordering and constructions of social reality. Weber (1992) focuses on studying the relationship between the modality and ideology of character discourse in novels.…”