Overview

The Discursive Construction of Veganism is a linguistic exploration of the stories we tell about veganism in popular media. Negative representations of veganism dominate, however, if veganism were represented in a more positive way, more people might be inclined to consider it in the interest of health: the health of our bodies, the health of our minds, the health of our communities and the health of our planet. This book examines ‘destructive stories’ and ‘beneficial stories’ in podcasts, online news organizations, documentary films, vegan cookbooks and social media accounts, looking at how these stories are linguistically constructed and the potential effect they may have on social cognition and real-world action. The author examines how widespread negative representations of veganism can be resisted with new stories that more accurately reflect real-world vegan practice. The book also includes a vegan value system supported by the academic and scientific communities, and a quick-reference toolkit of all the stories and their linguistic constructions and rhetorical devices. These can be used for those wishing to identify and resist destructive stories or to promote beneficial stories for vegan advocacy in the interest of ecology and the natural world.

Full Product Details

9781350447769

Table of Contents

Reviews

“What just happened?” a vegan thinks, escaping an intense conversation about their veganism; why the anger, resistance, and misinformation from the non-vegan? This linguistic instruction manual provides the answer, offering a fascinating and illuminating intervention into the contentious linguistic spaces where negative framing of veganism prevails while illustrating how positive stories of veganism can reclaim narrative spaces. * Carol J. Adams, author, The Sexual Politics of Meat *

“What just happened?” a vegan thinks, escaping an intense conversation about their veganism; why the anger, resistance, and misinformation from the non-vegan? This linguistic instruction manual provides the answer, offering a fascinating and illuminating intervention into the contentious linguistic spaces where negative framing of veganism prevails while illustrating how positive stories of veganism can reclaim narrative spaces. * Carol J. Adams, author, The Sexual Politics of Meat * In an era of over-consumption and abuse of the planet and nature, this book provides a passionate and accessible tool kit for understanding discourses which block change and also for creating discourses which may give us a chance. Let us hope this book is widely read! * David Machin, Institute of Language Sciences, Shanghai International Studies University, China *

Author Information

Mario Leto is a lecturer in linguistics and second-language acquisition in Tokyo, Japan.

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