SearchPublisher and Institutes
You are here: Home :: Area CULI :: Linguistics and literature :: Communication science
Sue Wharton
Divide and rule: The power of adversarial subjectivities in the discourse of divorce
Keywords: critical discourse analysis, systemic functional linguistics, language and power, family law, identity, bureaucratic discourse
In this paper I analyze some of the texts used in the legal procedures of divorce in England and Wales. I examine the texts as instruments of institutional power and as potentially identity constructing for the divorcing spouses who use them. My analysis focuses on the representation in text of each divorcing spouse and of the relevant legal institutions; it also focuses on the actions taken by the legal institutions through the texts. I argue that the texts construct an adversarial relationship between the divorcing spouses, treat them unequally in terms of social entitlement, and give one spouse power over the other. One of the consequences may be the bolstering of a sense of institutional power in individual lives: another consequence may be an impact on the developing psychology, both individual and relational, of the spouses. I conclude the paper with some reflections on the potential of this type of research for contributing to social change.
Text - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 0165-4888
Volume: 26, 12/2006
Pages: 791 - 814