Hybrid Genres and the Cognitive Positioning of Audiences in the Political Discourse of Hizbollah

TitleHybrid Genres and the Cognitive Positioning of Audiences in the Political Discourse of Hizbollah
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2010
AuthorsBadran, Dany
JournalCritical Discourse Studies
Volume7
Pagination191–201
Keywordsgenre, hybrid genre, ideology, pragmatics, rhetoric, stylistics
Abstract

This paper aims at providing a better understanding of the workings of political rhetoric in the discourse of Hizbollah by examining relatively underexplored socio-cognitive dimensions in production and reception of political speeches. It argues for the centrality of the macro-linguistic textual notion of hybrid genres to the understanding of the socio-cultural makeup of speaker-audience relations and dynamics. The adequateness and uniqueness of the Lebanese, and by extension, the Middle-Eastern context are more clearly evident in the overwhelming dominance of dogmatic discourses which, I argue, both trigger and aid the perpetual construction and reconstruction of ideologically susceptible audiences. Elements of these discourses such as religious, political, military and even literary blend in a unique way in public, normally political, speeches to produce a type of hybrid genre which helps construct constantly shifting audience roles with varying effective power. A pragmatic-stylistic analysis of the discourse of conflict, I propose, can help provide a starting point for understanding the complexity of the rhetorical situation in the region especially in the context of continuously rising extremism.