For citation:
Dubrovskaya T. V. Online petition as a genre in the context of feminist discourse. Speech Genres, 2017, no. 1(15), pp. 111-117. DOI: 10.18500/2311-0740-2017-1-15-111-117
Online petition as a genre in the context of feminist discourse
The paper explores the online petition as a genre in feminist discourse. The author aims at revealing how the meanings are constructed that characterise modern feminist discourse as well as how structural and textual features are related to the social charge of the genre. The data contain 18 online petitions written in different countries, whose authors set the task to change the position and living conditions of women. In terms of methodology, the author draws on social constructionism, critical discourse analysis and the theory of speech genres as well as offering the analytic model that covers a few aspects. These include defining functional intentionality of the genre, establishing major thematic groups of feminist petitions and revealing the mechanisms used to construct the feminine identity of the author. The results of the analysis have shown that the petitions problematise specific aspects of womens’ lives and thematically range from demands to provide satisfactory living conditions to appeals to create symbolic cultural artefacts. In the paper, the petition is qualified as a genre of imperative and evaluation, which is actualised through performatives and an array of evaluative lexical units that construct the feminine identity as opposed to the masculine one.
- Dubrovskaya T. V. Zhanr ‘pismo v upakovke’: diskursivnoje konstruirovanije avtora i adresata [Genre «letter in the pack»: discursive construction of the addresser and the addressee] // Zhanry Rechi [Speech genres]. 2016. No. 1, pp. 128–136.
- Fairclough N. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London, New York: Routledge, 2004. 270 p.
- Kurjanovich A.V. Poliparadigmalnost zhanra v zerkale predpochtenij sovremennoj lingvistiki (iz opyta analiza onlain petitsiji kak osoboj raznovidnosti epistolyarnykh tekstov [Multi-paradigmality of genre mirrored through the preferences of modern linguistics (based on the analysis of online petitions as an epistolary genre)] // Vestnik Novosibirskogo gosudarstbennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta [Bulletin of Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University]. 2016. No. 2(3), pp. 150-159.
- Lazar M. Communicating (post)feminism in discourse // Discourse & Communication. 2009. No. 3(4). P. 339-344.
- Lazar M. Feminist critical discourse analysis: articulating a feminist discourse praxis // Critical Discourse Studies. 2007. No. 4:2. P. 141-164.
- Pupkova A.V. Petitsija kak zhanr frantsuzskogo ekologicheskogo diskursa [Petition as a genre of French ecological discourse] // Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo lingvisticheskogo universiteta [Bulletin of Moscow State Linguistic University]. 2010. No. 10(589), pp. 33-45.
- Stepanova N.B. Onlain petitsija kak novyj zhanr internet-kommunikatsiji [Online petition as a new genre in the Internet communication] // Jazyk v razlichnykh sferakh kommunikatsii: materialy II Mezhdunarodnoj nauch. konf. Chita: ZabGU [Language in various communication contexts: proceedings of the 2nd International scientific conference. Chita: Transbaikal State University], 2016. Pp. 138-141.