Editing Discourse (section)

=== Foucault<!--'Discursive formation' redirects here--> ===
In the works of the philosopher [[Michel Foucault]], a ''discourse'' is "an entity of sequences, of signs, in that they are enouncements (''énoncés'')."<ref name=Foucault1969>{{Cite book| author = M. Foucault| year = 1969| title = L'Archéologie du savoir| location = Paris| publisher = Éditions Gallimard| author-link = M. Foucault}}</ref> The enouncement (''l’énoncé'', "the statement") is a linguistic construct that allows the writer and the speaker to assign meaning to words and to communicate repeatable semantic relations to, between, and among the statements, objects, or subjects of the discourse.<ref name=Foucault1969 /> Internal ties exist between the signs (semiotic sequences). The term '''discursive formation'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> identifies and describes written and spoken statements with semantic relations that produce discourses. As a researcher, Foucault applied the discursive formation to analyses of large bodies of knowledge, e.g. [[political economy]] and [[natural history]].<ref name=Foucault1970>{{Cite book|author= M. Foucault| title=The Order of Things|year=1970| publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn= 0-415-26737-4|author-link= M. Foucault}}</ref>

In ''[[The Archaeology of Knowledge]]'' (1969), a treatise about the [[methodology]] and [[historiography]] of systems of thought ("epistemes") and knowledge ("discursive formations"), [[Michel Foucault]] developed the concepts of discourse. The sociologist Iara Lessa summarizes Foucault's definition of discourse as "systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs, and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak."<ref>{{cite journal | last =Lessa | first = Iara | title=Discursive Struggles within Social Welfare: Restaging Teen Motherhood | journal=The British Journal of Social Work|volume=36|issue=2|pages=283–298|doi=10.1093/bjsw/bch256|date=February 2006}}</ref> Foucault traces the role of discourse in the [[legitimation]] of society's [[Power (social and political)|power]] to construct contemporary truths, to maintain said truths, and to determine what relations of power exist among the constructed truths; therefore discourse is a communications medium through which power relations produce men and women who can speak.<ref name="Strega, 2005" />

The interrelation between power and knowledge renders every human relationship into a power negotiation,<ref>Foucault, Michel. ''Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977'' (1980) New York City: Pantheon Books.</ref> Because power is always present and so produces and constrains the truth.<ref name="Strega, 2005" /> Power is exercised through rules of exclusion (discourses) that determine what subjects people can discuss; when, where, and how a person may speak; and determines which persons are allowed to speak.<ref name="Foucault1969" /> That knowledge is both the ''creator'' of power and the ''creation'' of power, Foucault coined "''[[power-knowledge|power/knowledge]]"'' to show that it is "an abstract force which determines what will be known, rather than assuming that individual thinkers develop ideas and knowledge."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sellars |first=Maura |title=Educating Students with Refugee and Asylum Seeker Experiences: A Commitment to Humanity |date=2020 |publication-date=2020 |pages=23 |language=en |chapter=Chapter Two: Power: Discourses of Power |doi=10.2307/j.ctv12sdz0r.7 |jstor=j.ctv12sdz0r.7 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv12sdz0r.7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kłos-Czerwińska |first=Paulina |url=https://wroclaw.pan.pl/images/pliki/Publikacje/Languages_in_Contact_vol.4.pdf |title=Discourse: an introduction to van Dijk, Foucault and Bourdieu |date=2015 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej : Komisja Nauk Filologicznych PAN. Oddział ; International Communicology Institute |isbn=978-83-60097-37-3 |series=Languages in Contact |location=Wrocław : Washington |pages=166}}</ref> 

[[Interdiscourse]] studies the external semantic relations among discourses,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keller |first=Reiner |url=https://methods.sagepub.com/book/doing-discourse-research |title=Doing Discourse Research: An Introduction for Social Scientists |date=2013 |publisher=SAGE Publications Ltd |isbn=978-1-4739-5764-0 |language=en |doi=10.4135/9781473957640}}</ref> as discourses exists in relation to other discourses.<ref name=Foucault1970/>