IDEOLOGY AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

PSIR538

Course Code: PSIR538
Semester: -
Theory+Practice: 3 + 0
ECTS: 10

Course Type

Elective Course

Course Level

Master's Degree With Thesis

Year of Study

Semester

ECTS

Name of Lecturer(s)

Assistant Professor Erdem Damar

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

Explain the concepts of ideology and discourse through classical and contemporary the-oretical approaches.
Utilize key conceptual tools of post-structuralist political theory.
Apply concepts such as hegemony, empty signifier, and antagonism in analytical con-texts.
Critically interpret and analyzes theoretical texts.
Apply discourse analysis techniques to contemporary political discourses.

Mode of Delivery

Face to face

Prerequisites

Recommended Optional Programme Components

No recommended optional programme components.

Course Description

This course explores the concepts of ideology and discourse within the framework of post-structuralist political theory. It offers a deep theoretical journey from classical Marxist and Gramscian approaches to more contemporary perspectives shaped by Lacan, Derrida, Wittgen-stein, and especially Laclau and Mouffe. The role of ideology in constructing social order, the production of subjectivity, the dynamics of hegemony, and the constitutive nature of discourse are at the core of the course. Students will gain the ability to conduct theoretical analysis and apply discourse analysis to contemporary political texts and phenomena.

Course Contents

WEEK	TOPICS
1^st Week	Introduction: What is Ideology? Conceptual Frameworks and Theoretical Orientations
2^nd Week	Classical Approaches: Marx, Althusser, and the Critique of Ideology
3^rd Week	Gramsci and Hegemony: Orthodoxy, Consent, and Civil Society
4^th Week	Wittgenstein and Language Games: Meaning, Use, and Discourse
5^th Week	Derrida and Deconstruction: Differance and the Decentering of Meaning
6^th Week	Lacan and the Subject: Lack, Desire, and the Empty Signifier
7^th Week	Laclau & Mouffe: Discourse, Antagonism, and Hegemony
8^th Week	William Connolly: Affect, Pluralism, and the Post-secular
9^th Week	Judith Butler: Performativity, Identity, and the Construction of Gender
10^th Week	Wendy Brown: Neoliberalism, Politics, and Subjectivity
11^th Week	Democracy, Society, and Identity: Debates on Radical Democracy
12^th Week	David Howarth & Aletta Norval: Methodological Approaches to Discourse Analysis
13^th Week	Yannis Stavrakakis: Populism, Desire, and Ideology
14^th Week	Discourse Analysis: Theoretical Application and Student Presentations and Discussion

Recommended or Required Reading

Althusser, Louis. 1971. ?Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.? In Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, translated by Ben Brewster, 127?186. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Brown, Wendy. 2015. Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism?s Stealth Revolution. New York: Zone Books.
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Connolly, William E. 1999. Why I Am Not a Secularist. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Derrida, Jacques. 1978. ?Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.? In Writing and Difference, translated by Alan Bass, 278?293. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Eagleton, Terry. 1991. Ideology: An Introduction. London: Verso.
Howarth, David. 2000. Discourse. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal Mouffe. 2001. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Rad-ical Democratic Politics. 2nd ed. London: Verso.
Norval, Aletta J. 2000. ?Democratic Identification: A Wittgensteinian Approach.? Political The-ory 28 (2): 220?246.
Stavrakakis, Yannis. 1999. Lacan and the Political. London: Routledge.
Soroush, Abdolkarim. 2000. ?Theoretical Expansion and Contraction of Religious Knowledge.? In Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush, edited and translated by Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmad Sadri, 29?56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Taylor, Charles. 1998. ?Modes of Secularism.? In Secularism and Its Critics, edited by Rajeev Bhargava, 31?53. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Wolin, Sheldon S. 2004. Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought. Expanded ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lecture
Discussion
Presentation

Assessment Methods and Criteria

	Quantity	Percentage (%)
Assignment	12	60
Total(%)		60
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%)		60
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%)		40
Total(%)		100

ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload

Activities	Quantity	Duration (Hour)	Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam
Preparation for Quiz
Individual or group work	14	5	70
Preparation for Final exam	1	30	30
Course hours	14	3	42
Preparation for Midterm exam
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam	1	3	3
Homework	12	13	156
Total Work Load			301
Total Work Load / 30 (h)			10.03
ECTS Credit of the Course			10

Language of Instruction

Turkish

Work Placement(s)

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

	LO1	LO2	LO3	LO4	LO5
K1		X	X	X	X
K2	X	X	X	X	X
K3
K4
K5	X		X
K6	X				X
K7					X
K8