(Critical) Discourse Studies and the (new?) normal: Analysing discourse in times of crisis

In recent years, norms, normalities, and normativities have been disrupted. Although the idea of ＂normal＂ is local and subjective, norms are essential to social and collective behaviours, thus the meanings, ideologies, and relationships of power that structure those behaviours. At the same time, the disruption of norms can create disagreements about what is ＂normal＂ and inspire novel ways of being.

This volume explores - from various discourse-analytic perspectives - the complex relationships between norms and discourse, and draws attention to the thematically and methodologically pluralistic work in Discourse Studies investigating these relationships across various social domains.

Stefania M. Maci is Full Professor of English Language at the University of Bergamo, where she is the coordinator of the MA in Digital Humanities and Director of the Research Centre on Specialised Language. Her research is focussed on the study of the English language in academic and professional contexts. Stefania is co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Discourse and Disinformation (Routledge, 2023).

Mark McGlashan is Senior Lecturer in English Language at Birmingham City University, UK. Mark’s research interests predominantly centre on the synthesis and application of methods from corpus linguistics and (critical) discourse studies to study a wide range of social issues, and his recent work has focussed on relationships between language and abuse. Mark is co-editor of Toxic Masculinity: men, meaning and digital media (Routledge, 2023) and of The Routledge Handbook of Discourse and Disinformation (Routledge, 2023).