Political Identity in Discourse

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

   PDF

2. Politics, Identity and Discourse

   • Jay M. Woodhams

   Pages 1-38

3. Political Landscapes: Physical, Social and Historical

   • Jay M. Woodhams

   Pages 39-65

4. Egalitarianism and Politics in New Zealand

   • Jay M. Woodhams

   Pages 67-101

5. Subnational Discourses and Local Selves

   • Jay M. Woodhams

   Pages 103-140

6. ‘I’m a Greenie’: Stances of Political Self and Other

   • Jay M. Woodhams

   Pages 141-185

7. The Political Priest: Multiple Stances, Multiple Selves

   • Jay M. Woodhams

   Pages 187-211

8. The Voices of New Zealand Voters

   • Jay M. Woodhams

   Pages 213-220

9. Back Matter

   Pages 221-225

   PDF

This book takes an innovative view of language and politics, charting the terrain of political identities and discourses in New Zealand through detailed linguistic analysis of interactions with its voters. The author first sets out the geographical and sociopolitical context, examining how the constraints of a small and isolated country interact with widespread social values such as egalitarianism. He then delves into the multiple nature of identities and explores how Kiwis form their political selves through informal talk with others and in engagement with their physical and discursive surroundings. In doing so, the author provides an in-depth exploration of New Zealand political culture, identity and discourse, and sheds light on how we use language to become political people. This book will be of interest to linguists, political scientists and sociologists working with discourse analysis.

• interactional sociolinguistics
• political discourse
• voter identity
• New Zealand politics
• critical realism
• metaphor analysis
• rhetoric
• 'tall poppy' syndrome
• mutliple stances
• self and other
• egalitarianism
• political landscapes
• discourse analysis

“This informative and innovative volume is a refreshing and up-to-date contribution to the domain of language and politics in many ways. … Political Identity in Discourse: The Voices of New Zealand Voters can be recommended as a valuable read to lay readers, researchers and postgraduate students interested in analyzing political discourses.” (Kai Zhao, Journal of Language and Politics, Vol. 20 (6), 2021)

“Woodhams offers an important and timely contribution to studies of politics and discourse that allows a deeper understanding of our current divisive political moment. … A crucial and well-illustrated point of the book is the complex and malleable nature of political identity. … The book provides a valuable contribution to an emerging literature at the intersection of ethnographyand discourse analysis that examines the complicated formation of current political identities and political talk.” (Misty Crooks, Language in Society, Vol. 49 (5), 2020)

“Giving voters their voice, Woodhams’ interview-based study offers a richly inflected portrayal of political identity in New Zealand. At once fluid and stable, these voices nuance the meanings of political tenets such as egalitarianism and its converse, the ‘tall poppy’. Woodhams’ approach through critical realism is a refreshing counterpoint to the hyper-constructivism of some contemporary discourse analysis.” (Allan Bell, Professor of Language and Communication, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand)

“In Political Identity in Discourse: The Voices of New Zealand Voters, Jay Woodhams provides a meticulous, rigorous and careful account of everyday political talk. At a time when politics is increasingly focused on ‘the people’, the emphasis on ordinary voters – rather than politicians or elites – is refreshing but also timely. This is important reading for anyone interested in “bottom-up” approaches to analysing political discourse.” (Sam Browse,Senior Lecturer, Sheffield Hallam University, UK)

 

• Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

  Jay M. Woodhams

Jay M. Woodhams teaches academic literacy at the Australian National University, Canberra, and is a Research Associate of the Language in the Workplace Project, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has published on populist political discourse in New Zealand and has looked at language use in the workplace and parliamentary contexts. His areas of interest include interactional sociolinguistics, pragmatics, cognitive linguistics and theories of discourse.

Policies and ethics