Critical Discourse Analysis in Historiography : The Case of Hong Kong's Evolving Political Identity

John Flowerdew shows how the critical analysis of the evolving discourse employed during a political process spanning more than a decade can provide both insights for discourse analysis and understanding of a real world political process, thereby demonstrating the potential role for critical discourse analysis in historiography, the writing of history. The political process in question is Hong Kong's transition of sovereignty from Great Britain to China. The book analyses the discourse of the outgoing British administration, on the one hand, and the creation of the new discourse of the Special Administrative Region of China, on the other. In addition, the book considers issues of intercultural discourse, where the two competing discourses come into contact and conflict. Individual chapters of the book, in the form of case studies, deal with different communicative events -- set piece speeches, public meetings, news articles, interviews, and television addresses.

JOHN FLOWERDEW is a Professor in the Department of English, City University of Hong Kong, China,where he has worked since 1989. His main research and teaching interest is discourse analysis in its many varieties and manifestations.