Discourse theory has informed many of the readings for this unit. In part it is an attempt to avoid some of the difficulties involved in using the concept of ideology . It is a way of understanding most associated with the work of the French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. As for instance, in notions of 'false consciousness' and 'raising awareness'. Power and concepts of truth relate within a circuit of discourses.
Discursive power is the power of language in action.
Discourse is limited and produced through 'expert' discourses, or discourses legitimised through institutional power, such as science and medicine. As we noted briefly in Topic 8 'The Body as Text', criminological discourses in the 19 th century produced public notions of the criminal, some of which continue to influence us today. However, expert discourses today produce ideas of deviance and criminality which were not in circulation in the 19 th century. For example, it is not in catching a criminal that power lies but in producing the notion of 'the criminal' in the first place. The criminal, the criminologist, the policeman and the prison are all created together 'in discourse'.