Discursive Approaches to Sociopolitical Polarization and Conflict

This collection explores the discursive strategies and linguistic resources underpinning conflict and polarization, taking a multidisciplinary approach to examine the ways in which conflict is constructed across a diverse range of contexts. The volume is divided into two sections as a means of identifying two different dimensions to conflict construction and bridging the gap between different perspectives through a constructivist framework. The first part comprises chapters looking at sociopolitical conflicts across specific geographic contexts across the US, Europe and Latin America. The second half of the book unpacks sociocultural conflicts, those not defined by physical borders but shaped by ideological differences on core values, such as on religion, gender and the environment. Drawing on frameworks across such fields as linguistics, critical discourse analysis, rhetoric studies and cognitive studies, the book offers new insights into the discursive polarization that permeates contemporary communicative interactions and the ways in which a better understanding of conflict and its origins might serve as a mechanism for providing new ways forward. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in critical discourse analysis, linguistics, rhetoric studies and peace and conflict studies.

Laura Filardo-Llamas is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Valladolid, Spain. Esperanza Morales-López is Full Professor in Linguistics at the University of A Coruña. Alan Floyd is Associate Professor of English Language in the University of A Coruña.

TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures List of tables Acknowledgements Introduction. Laura Filardo-Filardo Llamas & Esperanza Morales-López I. Polarization in social and political conflicts - Morales-López, Esperanza. Who are the "people" of Catalonia? The narratives of a conflict that has divided this "social group" in two. - Matos, Ana Raquel, Dora Fonseca and José Manuel Mendes. Social movements and protest events in Portugal during and after the austerity measures: A discursive analysis. - Morales-López, Esperanza and Floyd, Alan. Discourses of the left in a nationalist perspective. - De Cock, Barbara, Dupret, Pauline, Hambye, Philippe and Pizarro Pedraza, Andrea. Polarizing representations of immigrant communities in Belgian French-speaking online political discourse. - Flores, Joseph L. and Martínez-Guillem, Susana. Co-constructing conflict: The role of humorous memes in re-creating Donald Trump and his "others". - Elmerot, Irene. Constructing "us" and "them" through conflicts - Muslims and Arabs in the news 1990-2018. - Aguilera-Carnerero, Carmen. Of heroes and enemies: Visual polarisation in the propaganda magazines of the Islamic State. - Romano, Manuela and Porto, Dolores. Framing conflict in the Syrian refugee crisis: Multimodal representations in the Spanish and British press. - Cárdenas-Neira, Camila and Pérez-Arredondo, Carolina. Polarization and the educational conflict. A linguistic and multimodal approach to the discursive (re)construction of the Chilean student movement in the mainstream media and Facebook. - Filardo-Llamas, Laura. From the war on Covid-19 to political wars. Metaphor as a mechanism of polarization in the early stages of the 2020 pandemic. II. Polarization in symbolic and cultural conflicts - Domínguez, Martí, Moreno, Sara and Pina, Tatiana. Unicorns, donkeys and elephants: the battle on climate change in the United States of America as reflected in cartoons. - Salvador, Vicent. The social debate on energy sources and climate change: representations, argumentation and the emotional dimension. - Molpeceres, Sara. Angry white women? Right-wing female politicians reframing feminism in Spain. - Pascual Espinilla, Sergio. The polarization of the journalistic account on gender-based violence. A discursive analysis of its media treatment. - Pujante, David. The negated synecdoche. A rhetorical analysis of the Bible in the light of queer theology. - García Riverón, Raquel, Marrero, Alejandro and Acosta González, Yoan Karell. Multimodal discourse analysis of news according to Complexity Theory. The US-Cuba conflict: A case study. - Gutiérrez-Sanz, Víctor. Gudari or villain? Analysis of the rhetorical construction of the terrorist within the framework of the Basque conflict Afterword. Laura Filardo-Llamas & Esperanza Morales-López