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Gunilla Almström Persson

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Det politiska reportaget

    2018. Gunilla Almström Persson. Text- och samtalsstudier från Södertörns högskola 6, 161-177

    Article

    This paper use rhetorical criticism methodology when investigating linguistic and rhetorical means in the reportage genre. The concept of eye-witness is explored in six reportage from the GDR-propaganda published in 1962. Through analysis of dialogue and perception in text, the notion of presence is discussed. An assumption is that presence in text can be of paramount importance for the technique of persuasion. It  is claimed that presence might be communicated though dialogues. However the main impact of presence is connected to the perceptivity of the narrator. Values and arguments are highly emphasized when detailed descriptions are experienced by the narrator. Consequently the con- clusion of the analysis is associated with the rhetorical concept evidentia. Finally it is claimed that the GDR-propaganda use reportage from industries and construction sites to show western countries the advan- tages of East German version of socialism. The concept of political myth is introduced and is in the final discussion connected to the myth of technical development and the myth of progress. The theoretical frame- work consists of rhetoric, linguistics, and literary studies.

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  • Perspektiv i polisprotokoll

    2009. Gunilla Almström Persson (et al.).

    Thesis (Doc)

    The subject of this study is perspective in police reports. The overall aim is to introduce new tools for analysing perspective in written narratives. The material consists of reports based on different accounts of the same conflict from a number of people (the suspect, the injured part and witnesses), that is, different versions of the same sequence of events. The study begins with a theoretical discussion of perspective in literary texts and of some characteristics of the police reports examined. Two tools are developed to analyse linguistic means for identifying perspective.

    The first analytical tool can be placed within the framework of cognitive semantics. Analysis here concerns seeing space differently and having different limits in one’s way of experiencing the sequence of events. This conceptualisation of the focaliser (the person whose perspective is reported) is realised in the text through certain spatial expressions associated with the concept of centre. To analyse the centres chosen, the image schema centre–periphery is used in examining instances of the adverbs fram and bort and their derivations.

    The second analytical tool can be placed within the theoretical framework of dramaturgy. Analysis here concerns perceiving the dramatic development of events differently, that is, dramatic patterns in the different versions of the conflict and which character is given the most active role in it. The differences can be seen in the focaliser’s choice of events and how aggression is consciously or unconsciously described in terms of how different characters cause the conflict to escalate.

    The hypothesis being tested is whether the suspect’s perspective is discernible in the report of the suspect’s account. The hypothesis is confirmed. The study shows that the tools introduced work successfully in the analysis of perspective. Both analyses yield results, which in both cases can be validated.

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