Michael Billig

Talking of the royal family

1. Introduction: The problem of monarchy 2. The envy of the world 3. The continuing mystery 4. Identifying with them 5. Settling accounts 6. Desire, denial and the press 7. A womans realm 8. The heritage of the future. Appendix. Interview details.

Conversation Analysis and the Claims of Naivety

American Journal of Sociology 104: 161–216. Schegloff, E.A. (1997) ‘Whose Text? Whose Context?’, Discourse & Society 8: 165–87. Schegloff, E.A. (1998) ‘Reply to Wetherell’, Discourse & Society 9: 457–60. Schegloff, E.A. (1999) ‘Discourse, Pragmatics, Conversation, Analysis’, Discourse Studies 1(4), November. Stevens, Wallace (1982) The Collected Poems. New York: Vintage Books. Wetherell, M. (1998) ‘Positioning and Interpretive Repertoires: Conversation Analysis and Post-Structuralism in Dialogue’, Discourse & Society 9: 387–412.

Metaphor, idiom and ideology: the search for ‘no smoking guns’ across time

This article examines the idiom ‘smoking gun’ which has been much used in the controversy about the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is necessary to take a historical approach to understanding how metaphors might enter the political lexicon and how their usage and meaning might change over time. The passage from metaphor to idiom is often characterized in terms of a movement from ‘living’ metaphor to ‘dead’ metaphor. To understand how such a passage occurs, the current investigation draws upon Glucksberg’s ‘property attribution’ model of metaphor and contrasts it with Lakoff’s notable theory of metaphors. The ‘smoking gun’ idiom is traced to the Watergate controversy and its pragmatic uses in the political rhetoric of accusation are examined. It is suggested that there is nothing automatic in the use of such a phrase, as the rhetoric of blame can be countered by attempts to return the idiom from literal to metaphorical meaning. The ideological effects of the idiom ‘smoking gun’ are discussed and so, more generally, is the passage from metaphor to idiom in political discourse.

A Psychoanalytic Discursive Psychology: from consciousness to unconsciousness

This article presents the position for a Psychoanalytic Discursive Psychology. This position combines two elements: an action-theory of language, derived from Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, and a revised Freudian concept of repression. According to Wittgenstein and most contemporary discursive psychologists, language is to be understood as action, rather than being assumed to be an outward expression of inner, unobservable cognitive processes. However, a critical approach demands more than an interactional analysis of language acts: it requires an analysis of ideology. Because what is left unsaid can be as ideologically important as what is said, there is a need to investigate socially reproduced unconsciousness. This means taking the notion of repression seriously. Whereas Freud imagined repression to be an inner psychic process, it can, by contrast, be seen as an activity that is constituted within everyday language. In this respect, language is fundamentally both expressive and repressive. The social and psychological significance of a Psychoanalytic Discursive Psychology are discussed.

Reflecting on a critical engagement with banal nationalism – reply to Skey

It is gratifying that Michael Skey engages seriously and critically with Banal Nationalism. I welcome his suggestions for studying more systematically some of the phenomena that I only sketched in outline. Although I broadly agree with many of his points, nevertheless I feel at times he over-simplifies the argument of Banal Nationalism, particularly when he claims that I hold a top-down model which views ordinary people as passively receiving media messages. Certainly, Banal Nationalism concentrates on top-down phenomena, such as statements from politicians, symbols on coins, national flags. Skey’s complaint is not that I examine such phenomena, but that I use an unsatisfactory ‘model’ to do so:‘This model basically assumes that a national media addresses and constitutes a coherent national public’ (p. 335). Skey wishes to challenge ‘the very notion of a uniform, homogenous national audience’ (p. 335, italics in original). Regarding the issue of British nationality, Skey states that ‘it might be legitimately assumed{that Billig believes nationalism is banal for everyone who happens to live in Britain at the current time’. He suggests that, given the diversity of Britain and its four ‘national’ groups, ‘we might contend that making such an assumption closes down our analysis where it should begin’ (p. 337). I certainly did not intend my descriptions of banal nationalism in the media to ‘close down’ further analysis. In any case, I do not hold the view of a homogeneous audience that Skey ascribes to me. Banal Nationalism did not assume that the public of any nation – including the four ‘nations’ of the United Kingdom – have homogeneous views. I specifically suggested that arguments about the nature of the nation are the norm. I wrote that ‘different factions, whether classes, religions, regions, genders or ethnicities, always struggle for the power to speak for the nation, and to present their particular voice as the voice of the national whole’ (Billig, 1995: 71, emphasis added). The ‘model’, which Skey ascribes to me, is obviously unsatisfactory but it is not the psychological model, on which Banal Nationalism was based. Skey does not relate Banal Nationalism to my psychological writings. I welcome the opportunity to do so here. My psychological perspective stresses the link

The emergence of antisemitic conspiracy theories in yugoslavia during the war with NATO

Byford and Billig examine the emergence of antisemitic conspiracy theories in the Yugoslav media during the war with NATO. The analysis focuses mainly on Politika, a mainstream daily newspaper without a history of antisemitism. During the war, there was a proliferation of conspiratorial explanations of western policies both in the mainstream Serbian media and in statements by the Yugoslav political establishment. For the most part such conspiracy theories were not overtly antisemitic, but rather focused on the alleged aims of organizations such as the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. However, these conspiracy theories were not created de novo; writers in the Yugoslav media were drawing on an established tradition of conspiratorial explanations. The tradition has a strong antisemitic component that seems to have affected some of the Yugoslav writings. Byford and Billig analyse antisemitic themes in the book The Trilateral by Smilja Avramov and in a series of articles published in Politika. They suggest that the proliferation of conspiracy theories during the war led to a shifting of the boundary between acceptable and non-acceptable political explanations, with the result that formerly unacceptable antisemitic themes became respectable. This can be seen in the writings of Nikolaj Velimirovic, the Serbian bishop whose mystical antisemitic ideas had previously been beyond the bounds of political respectability. During the war, his ideas found a wider audience, indicating a weakening of political constraints against such notions.

Psychology, rhetoric, and cognition

be overlooked, since it is professionally damaging for the academic to be unaware of the very latest developments. These practices of professional reading and publishing would seem to be an enactment of the assumption that today’s knowledge is better than yesterday’s and that tomorrow’s will be better still. Within psychology, this habit of mind can be accompanied by a condescension towards past psychologies, especially those from the distant past. Textbooks of psychology, which fill their pages with information about recent discoveries, sometimes will quote an old name. The tone is likely to be patronizing with words to the effect: ’Although Aristotle lived over two thousand years ago, he had some interesting things to say about persuasion’, or about interpersonal attraction, or whatever. It is as if the ancient figure is to be given a beta-plus for effort; the alphas can be awarded only to those who have taken courses in experimental methodology and can handle the latest computer-run statistical packages. When the applications of modern physical sciences are compared to those of ancient sciences, the condescending attitude towards the science of the past is not difficult to hold. The performances of computers, sports cars and Il-11 bombers

Rhetorical and historical aspects of attitudes: The case of the British monarchy

Abstract This paper seeks to develop the rhetorical approach to the study of social psychology, by looking at the rhetorical aspects of British attitudes towards the monarchy. The rhetorical approach stresses that attitudes are stances in public controversy and, as such, must be understood in their wider historical and argumentative context. Changes in this context can lead to changes in attitudinal expression, such as the phenomenon of Taking the Side of the Other, which should be distinguished from the sort of attitudinal changes normally described by social psychological theories of attitudes. One needs to assume that attitudinal stances contain both explicit and implicit aspects, and also that these may be contrary to each other. The change in James Gillrays cartoons from anti‐monarchical themes in 1792 to pro‐monarchical themes in 1793 is discussed as an example of Taking the Side of the Other in response to changing historical contexts. Contemporary monarchical attitudes are also examined to show t...

Dialogic Repression and the Oedipus Complex: Reinterpreting the Little Hans Case:

This paper offers a discursive reinterpretation of the psychoanalytic concept of repression. Language is both expressive and repressive, and, therefore, children, in acquiring language, learn to repress rhetorically. The sort of repressions which, according to classic Freudian theory, occur as a result of the Oedipus Complex are themselves dialogically and socially constituted. In consequence, the processes of repression can be examined by extending the techniques of discursive psychology. These ideas are examined in relation to Freuds case of Little Hans, paying attention to the ways that the adults are implicitly practising and teaching repression. It is argued that Freud, in his interpretations, repressed the themes of parental power and desire. The dialogic details show Hans to be developing within a social world in which dialogic repression is habitually practised by adults. The implications of such notions for developmental and discursive psychology are discussed.

Stacking the Cards of Ideology: The History of the Sun Souvenir Royal Album

This paper examines the ideological construction of popular narratives of history. It is suggested that contemporary ideology, because it contains contrary themes, can give rise to contrary histories, produced by the same source. The analysis concentrates upon the Sun, Britains largest-selling newspaper and a key element in Rupert Murdochs News International empire. The Sun Souvenir Royal Album is analysed in detail for its depiction of royal history as a narrative of individual, moral progress. This is compared to an older popular history which expresses an ideology of liberal political progress, as opposed to moral individualism. However, the Sun also articulates a different history, which is critical of monarchy, and this is articulated under different rhetorical and political conditions. In this way the narratives of history serve ideological and political functions.