The division of deontic labour in the discourse of HIV/AIDS post-1996. A critical discourse analysis of necessity and obligation in the British press and interviews with gay men with HIV

Ghio, Ivan (2020). The division of deontic labour in the discourse of HIV/AIDS post-1996. A critical discourse analysis of necessity and obligation in the British press and interviews with gay men with HIV. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the tenor of the discourse of HIV/AIDS post 1996 in Britain. 1996 is understood as a watershed in the medicalisation of HIV, when, thanks to the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), HIV moves from being a fatal to a chronic but manageable condition (Arts and Hazuda 2012; Newman et al 2010). In light of this, my research sets out to identify the way in which the virus and people with HIV (PWH) are linguistically evaluated. To this end, two corpora form the basis of my research: a news corpus, comprising the news texts published by the British media between 1996 and 2015 on HIV/AIDS and gay people, and an interview corpus consisting of 15 semi-structured interviews with gay men with HIV (GMWH). The variable ‘gay’ is considered to be a crucial one. Indeed, as the first social group to be associated with HIV in the history of HIV/AIDS, gay people have found themselves at the centre of a ‘moral panic’ type of reporting that has gradually extended to include other social minorities (Altman 1986a, 1986b, Fee et al 1993)

The analysis situates itself within the tradition of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and selects deontic modality as the entry point, as an evaluative linguistic feature capable of providing some insight into the tenor of the discourse at hand. Moreover, links made in the linguistic and philosophical literature between deontic modality and morality make the former a viable tool for the identification of potential moral undertones. It is argued that the import of analysing deontic modality is twofold: not only does it provide evidence of the tenor of the discourse at hand, but also enables the identification of new strands in the discourse of HIV/AIDS regarding the public and private management of the virus.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):