This module offers an introduction to the role of discourse in health, illness and medical practice. Discourse analysis explores social life through the analysis of language in its widest sense (including verbal interaction, non-verbal, images, symbols, documents). In this module, we will study genres of language including case reports, scientific papers, drug advertisements and media health stories, as well as interaction in consultations. There will be a particular focus on introducing students to relevant methods in the study of medical discourses.
 
The course will focus on themes such as how discourses about scientific evidence or patient-centeredness regulate medicine and how illness is negotiated, represented and socially constructed. Students will cover a range of different methodological perspectives including conversation analysis, sociolinguistics, discursive psychology, textual analysis and Foucauldian approaches. Practical workshops will address data collection and analysis, and assessment will be by a 6000 word essay.