Abstract
This chapter introduces the main topics and foci of this book. It begins with the meaning of post-truth, named the 2016 ‘word of the year’ by the Oxford English Dictionary and an explanation of why this book appears at this point in time, written by this author. The chapter also introduces terms that may be seen as alternatives to post-truth, such as ‘bullshit’, ‘misleadingness’ and ‘agnotology’, although it leaves detailed treatments for Chapter 2. The final half of the chapter is devoted to the type of critical analysis of discourse that appears in Chapters 2 and 3. This approach draws on Fairclough’s notion of semiosis and his interest in the political economic backdrop of discursive activity; Wodak and Reisigl’s Discourse Historical Approach, which focuses heavily on the socio-historical context and the use of topoi as a rhetorical resource; and finally, the key notions of heteroglossia (Bakhtin) and intertextuality (Kristeva).
The original version of this chapter was revised: Post-publication corrections have been incorporated. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00497-2_5
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26 May 2019
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Block, D. (2019). Introduction. In: Post-Truth and Political Discourse. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00497-2_1
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