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The Dialogic Emergence Of 'Truth' In Politics: Reproduction And Subversion Of The 'War On Terror' Discourse, Adam Hodges
The Dialogic Emergence Of 'Truth' In Politics: Reproduction And Subversion Of The 'War On Terror' Discourse, Adam Hodges
Adam Hodges
Truth claims in political discourse are implicated in a dialogic process whereby political actors "assimilate, rework, and re-accentuate" prior discourse (Bakhtin 1986:89). While political actors themselves may view truth as an object to be discovered, I argue that discourse analysts are best served by viewing truth as an emergent property of this dialogic process. In this paper, I examine how intertextual connections are integral to both the reproduction and subversion of established truth claims (such as the claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction). My data draw from George W. Bush's speech on May 1, 2003 to declare …