•Looking not at
just one image or text but a whole social, political, economic, emotional, etc. context in which
the image (or other
material) is produced and understood.
•Examples:
Looking at x-rays in terms of the medical
discourse (doctors, nurses, managed care, hospitals, whole language of anatomy and other medical concepts and terms), or a Rembrandt in terms of art discourse (museums, galleries, publications, auction houses,
etc.)
•All the elements
of a discourse relate to each other (intertextuality)
•Foucault: Our
sense of self made through the operations of discourse.
•Determines what
types of actions feel possible to both those with and without with power. In constant
flux…