A Discursive strategies and resistance ideologies in victims’ narratives in Stella Dimoko Korkus’ Domestic Violence Diary

Authors

  • Adetutu Aragbuwa Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v10i1.319

Keywords:

Domestic Violence, Critical Discourse Analysis, ideology, weblog, Stella Dimoko Korkus’s Domestic Violence Diary 1-4, and victims’ narratives

Abstract

This paper explores victims’ narratives in Stella Dimoko Korkus’ Domestic Violence Diary 1-4 by means of critical discourse analysis. The study specifically explores the discursive strategies deployed in the victims’ narratives and analyses their ideological functions as resistant discourse against domestic violence (henceforth, DV). The data comprise fifteen (15) purposively selected narratives relayed by victims of DV in Stella Dimoko Korkus’ weblog. The weblog was purposively selected because of its thematic global collection of narratives from victims of DV. The work employs van Dijk’s ideological square approach to critical discourse analysis as theoretical framework. Findings from the analysis reveal that the victims, by means of diverse discursive strategies, advertently create polarisation structures and cognitions that represent themselves (the victims) as the dominated group, and their abusers as the dominant group. The study, therefore, foregrounds the role of Stella Dimoko Korkus’ Domestic Violence Diary weblog in the instantiation of victims’ resistance against DV. The significance of Stella Dimoko Korkus’ Domestic Violence Diary as discourse of resistance against DV and of solidarity with women-victims of DV is thus illustrated.

References

Adebayo, Anthony Abayomi. 2014. “Sociological Implications of Domestic Violence on Children’s Development in Nigeria.” Journal of African Studies and Development 6(1): 8-13.

Adebayo, Anthony Abayomi. 2014. “Domestic Violence against Men: Balancing the Gender Issues in Nigeria.” American Journal of Sociological Research 4(1): 14-19.

Adetunji, Akinbiyi. 2010. “Aspects of Linguistic Violence to Nigerian Women.” The International Journal - Language Society and Culture 31: 10-17.

Aihie, Ose N. 2009. “Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Nigeria: Implication for Counselling.” Edo J. Couns, 2(1): 1-8.

Ajiboye, Esther. 2013. “Ideological Discourse Analysis of the Functions of Feedback Comments on Online Reports of Socio-Political Crises in Nigeria.” Covenant Journal of Language Studies (CJLS) 1(2): 4-26.

Anthonissen, Christine. 2001. On the Effectiveness of Media Censorship: Linguistic, Paralinguistic and Other Communicative Devices of Media Regulation. PhD thesis. University of Vienna.

Arawomo, Yinka Kemi. 2016. Representation of Gender-Based Violence in Victims’ Narratives in Stella Dimoko Korkus’ Blog. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

Benke, Gertraud. 2000. Diskursanalyse als Sozialwissenschaftliche Untersuchungsmethode. SWS Rundschau, 2: 140-162.

Blackburn, Judith Frances. 2008. “Reading and Phonological Awareness Skills in Children Exposed to Domestic Violence.” Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma 17(4): 415-438.

Blood, Rebecca. 2000. Weblogs: A History and Perspective. Retrieved from http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

Chhabra, S. 2018. “Effects of Societal/Domestic Violence on Health of Women.” J Women’s Health Reprod Med. 2(1:6): 1-7.

Chilton, Paul Anthony. 2004. Analysing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.

Chiluwa, Innocent. 2012. Language in the News. Mediating Sociopolitical Crises in Nigeria. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Danah, Boyd. 2006. “A Blogger’s Blog: Exploring the Definition of a Medium.” In Theories/Practices of blogging edited by M. Benton and L. Elkin, Reconstruction 6(4). Retrieved from http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/boyd.shtml

Eagleton, Terry. 1991. Ideology. An Introduction. London: Verso Eds.

Easteal, Patricia. L., Bartels, Lorana and Bradford, Sally. 2012. “Language, Gender and ‘Reality’: Violence against Women.” International Journal of Law Crime and Justice 40(4): 324-337.

Eldursi, Sarah. 2013. Formality and Contextuality in Blogs: A Linguistic Analysis. MA Thesis. Goteborgs Universitatet: Inst for Sprak Och Literraturer.

Fairclough, Norman. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.

Fairclough, Norman. 2000. Discourse, Social Theory, and Social Research: The Discourse of Welfare Reform. Journal of Sociolinguistics 4: 163-195.

Falana, F. ed. 2013. “A Law to Provide Protection Against Domestic Violence and for Connected Purposes.” Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Lagos State Government, Nigeria: OxbrandPlanet Ltd.

Freeden, Micheal. 1996. Ideologies and Political Theory. A Conceptual Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Galić, Nenad. eds. 2016. “Practice Guide: Domestic Violence.” Addendum to the Judicial Benchbook: Considerations for Domestic Violence Case Evaluation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Atlantic Initiative, Centre for Security and Justice Research AI/DCAF. Sarajevo: CPU Printing Company.

Ganley, Anne L. 1999. “Understanding Domestic Violence.” In Improving the Health Care Response to Domestic Violence: A Resource Manual for Health Care Providers edited by C. Warshaw and A. L. Ganley, 15-8. San Francisco, California: Family Violence Prevention Fund.

Gerring, John. 1997. “Ideology: A Definitional Analysis.” Political Research Quaterly 50(4): 957-994.

Grieve, Jack, Biber, Douglas, Friginal, Eric and Nekrasova, Tatiana. 2010. “Variation among Blogs: A Multidimensional Analysis.” In Genres on the Web: Computational Models and Empirical Studies edited by A. Mehler, S. Sharoff and M. Santini. New York: Springer.

Herring, Susan C., Scheidt, Lois, Bonus, Sabrina and Wright, E. 2004. “Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs.” Proceedings of the 37th Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-37). Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer Society Press. Retrieved from http://www.blogninja.com/DDGDD04.doc.

Huspek, Micheal. ed. 2009. Oppositional Discourses and Democracies. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

Jurida, S. Hadžiahmetović. 2013. “Linguistic Properties and Aspects of Blogging Within the Context of Netspeak.” JEZIKOSLOVLJE 14(2-3): 517-536.

Klein, Andrew R. 2015. “Practical Implications of Current Domestic Violence Research: For Law Enforcement, Prosecutors and Judges.” NIJ Special Report 1-96.

Lloyd, Michele and Ramon, Shula. 2016. “Smoke and Mirrors: U.K. Newspaper Representations of Intimate Partner Domestic Violence.” Violence against Women, 1-26. Retrieved from sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

McFarlane, Anna. 2012. “Spells and Hate Speech: Linguistic Violence and Vulnerability in the Harry Potter Series.” Reason Papers, 34(1): 145-156.

Miller, Carolyn R. and Shepherd, Dawn. 2004. “Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog. University of Minnesota.” Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/172818.

Ó Baoill, Andrew O. 2004. “Conceptualizing the Weblog: Understanding What It Is in Order to Imagine What It Can Be.” Interfacings: A Journal of Contemporary Media Studies. Retrieved from http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/icr/interfacings

Okemgbo, Christian. N., Omideyi, Adekunbi. K., and Odimegwu, Clifford O. 2002. “Prevalence, Patterns and Correlates of Domestic Violence in Selected Igbo Communities of Imo State.” Nig. Afr. J. Reprod Health 6(2): 101-114.

Oravec, Jo Ann. 2013. “Blending by Blogging: Weblogs in Blended Learning Initiatives.” Journal of Educational Media 28(2–3): 225-233.

Tilbrook, Emily, Allan, Alfred and Dear, Greg. 2010. “Intimate Partner Abuse of Men.” Men’s Advisory Network Inc. Australia: Edith Cowan University.

Stella, Dimoko Korkus. 2013-2017. Domestic Violence Diary 1-4. Retrieved from www.stelladimokorkus.com

Sutherland, Georgina, McCormack, Angus, Pirkis, Jane, Easteal, Patricia, Holland, Kate and Vaughan, Cathy. 2015. Media Representations of Violence against Women and their Children: State of Knowledge Paper. (ANROWS Landscapes, 15). Sydney, NSW: ANROWS.

UNFPA. 2005. “Domestic Violence against Women.” Retrieved from https://www.unfpa.org>files

UNICEF. 2006. “Behind Closed Doors: The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children.” Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/media/files/BehindClosedDoors.pdf

United Nations. 1993. “Strategies for Confronting Domestic Violence: A Resource Manual.” New York: United Nations Publication.

van Dijk, Teun. A. 1995. “Aims of Critical Discourse Analysis.” Japanese Discourse 1: 17-27.

van Dijk, Teun. A. 2000. “Ideology and Discourse. A Multidisciplinary Introduction.” English version of an internet course for the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Retrieved from www.discourses.org

van Dijk, Teun. A. 2001. Multidisciplinary CDA: A Plea for Diversity. In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis edited by R. Wodak and M. Meyer, 95-120. London: Sage.

van Dijk, Teun. A. 2006. Politics, Ideology, and Discourse. Encyclopedia of language and linguistics, Doi: 10.1016/BO-08-044854-2/00722-7. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net

van Dijk, Teun A. 2015. Critical Discourse Analysis. In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (2nd ed.) edited by D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton and D. Schiffrin, 466-485. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Volpe, Joseph S. 1996. “Effects of Domestic Violence on Children and Adolescents: An Overview.” The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. Retrieved from https://www.aaets.org>effects-of-domestic...

Wijnia, Elmine. (2004). “Understanding Weblogs: A Communicative Perspective.” In BlogTalks 2.0: The European Conference on Weblogs, edited by Thomas N. Burg, 38-82. Retrieved from

http://elmine.wijnia.com/weblog/archives/wijnia_understandingweblogs.pdf(2004)

Wodak, Ruth and Meyer Micheal, eds. 2001. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage.

Wodak, Ruth. 2001. “What CDA is About – a Summary of its History, Important Concepts and its Developments.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, edited by R. Wodak and M. Meyer, 1-13. London: Sage.

Wodak, Ruth. 2009. “Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory, and Methodology.” In Methods for Critical Discourse Analysis (2nd Revised ed.), edited by R. Wodak & M. Meyer, 1-33. London: Sage.

Yus, Francisco. 2007. “Towards a Pragmatics of Weblogs.” Quaderns de Filologia. Estudis Linguistics 12: 15-33.

Downloads

Published

08/03/2021

How to Cite

Aragbuwa, A. (2021). A Discursive strategies and resistance ideologies in victims’ narratives in Stella Dimoko Korkus’ Domestic Violence Diary. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 10(1), 251–275. https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v10i1.319