Discourse Approaches to an Emerging Age of Populist Politics

This book presents a collection of studies related to populism in contemporary political discourse. Following growing scholarly interest in the topic, this volume offers a wide panorama on the discursive construction of populism across the political spectrum worldwide. International experts from different backgrounds provide a comprehensive analysis of populist communication in present-day politics. Each chapter in the book constitutes a case study from a different country, altogether offering a global perspective on the construction of populism in political discourse. In particular, the book presents studies from fourteen different countries across the globe: Belgium, France, Spain, the United States of America, Portugal, Montenegro, Italy, Ghana, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Japan, Russia, Poland, and Israel. Here, readers can (1) get acquainted with discourse on populism in the media; (2) have access to ample descriptions of populist communication strategies across frontiers; (3)explore populist discourse by contemporary societies’ well-known political leaders from different countries; and (4) examine the intertwining of populism, policymaking, and religion. Rooted in different frameworks, the various chapters offer a comprehensive understanding of the complex phenomenon of populism. The volume also enables the reader to globally grasp similarities and differences in the way populist discourse is built from West to East. International and interdisciplinary approaches form the cornerstone of this volume that will appeal to scholars from diverse academic backgrounds.

Exploring populism in contemporary political discourse.- What does populism mean in Belgian media discourse? A Corpus-Assisted Analysis of the Terms Populism and Populist in French- and Dutch-Speaking Media in Belgium.- Populism on the Move: Tracking the Circulation of Populist(s) and Populism(s) in France’s Parliamentary, Mass Media, and Twitter Arenas.- Understanding Populism from the Voter’s Perspective in Spain: Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Yolanda Díaz in Contrast.- Extreme Case Formulations: A Diachronic Analysis of Populism in the US Political Arena.

Isabel Íñigo-Mora is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Seville, Spain. Her main area of research is political discourse analysis.  She is the author on topics including discourse identity, equivocation theory, (im)politeness, mitigation, and nonverbal communication. Some of her publications include: “On the use of the personal pronoun we in communities” (Journal of Language and Politics, 2004); “Extreme case formulations in Spanish pre-electoral debates and English panel interviews” (Discourse Studies, 2007); “Rhetorical strategies in the British and Spanish parliaments” (included in the book European Parliaments under Scrutiny, 2010); “Commitment to the truth or defensive stance? Political strategies in the Brexit contest” (Psychology of Language and Communication, 2021): and “Pejoration in political interviews: Contrasting U.S. President Donald J. Trump with Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro” (included in the book Adversarial Political Interviewing, 2022). Email: isabelin@us.es

Cristina Lastres-López is Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Seville and a member of the research unit for Variation, Linguistic Change and Grammaticalization at the University of Santiago de Compostela.  After completing an MA in English Linguistics from University College London, she obtained a PhD in Advanced English Studies (Linguistics) from the University of Santiago de Compostela. Her research interests lie in the areas of discourse analysis, contrastive linguistics, and corpus linguistics. She has published in international journals such as Language Sciences, Journal of Pragmatics, and English Today, among others. Her monograph entitled From Subordination to Insubordination: A Functional-Pragmatic Approach to if/si-Constructions in English, French and Spanish SpokenDiscourse was published by Peter Lang in 2021 and received the prestigious research award for early-career researchers by the Spanish Association for Applied Linguistics in 2023. Email: clastres@us.es