THE DISCOURSE STRUCTURE OF BOOK REVIEWS IN GHANAIAN NEWSPAPERS, 1950-2006
Journal Title: The Dawn Journal - Year 2013, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
Over the past several years there has been a remarkable scholarly interest in the book review genre in the Euro-American academic world: its prototypicality and variations across disciplines, cultures, and time. Just like western scholars, among the community of African scholars resident in Africa, the book review plays a significant role in scholarly interactions. In Ghana, for instance, where the academic book publishing industry has become vibrant the book review plays an essential role in announcing new knowledge. However, investigations into the structure and possible cross-cultural variations of the genre in a non-native English context such as Ghana’s appear non-existent. This study extends research on book reviews to a non-native English context in order to investigate cross-cultural variations relevant to the genre. The study describes and accounts for the range and variability of sub-functions within the four-move structure originally devised by Motta Roth, and further explores the extent to which the social, political and cultural dynamics of the Ghanaian community have shaped the rhetorical moves made in the reviews.
Authors and Affiliations
Gordon Adika
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP87314
- DOI -
- Views 167
- Downloads 0
GLEAMS OF HISTORY IN EPIE-ATISSA LEISURE GAMES
This paper examines the historical contents of the traditional leisure games in Epie-Atissa in the Niger Delta. While not neglecting the anthropological and sociological dimensions of the games, it pays significant atten...
DESERTED VILLAGES AND DESTROYED DREAMS: AN INDICATION OF CULTURE EXTINCTION
What I propose to pen in the following pages is not about the history of my people, but about their contemporary condition of living that I aspire to explore. I come from the badaga community, a distinctive sect of tribe...
YOU CAN SPEAK IN ENGLISH WITH ÉLAN: A REVIEW
In today’s world of globalization pronouncing a word correctly is as important as using correct syntax. People understand how embarrassing it could be if a word mispronounced means something else. It may lead to un...
MODERNISM AS A FAILED UTOPIA: A POSTCOLONIAL CRITIQUE OF WOLE SOYINKA’S DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN AND NGUGI WA THIONG’O AND NGUGI WA MIRII’S, I WILL MARRY WHEN I WANT
Ever since becoming a hegemonic cultural project erected on the foundations of self-acclaimed Western cultural legitimizations or superiority, modernism has been fiercely criticized for failing in its civilizing mission...
BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN MULTICULTURALISM AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
The needs of the 21st century demand a citizenry that is culturally sensitive and internationally focused, with an orientation toward the future rather than the past. Every child is born with a language acquisition devic...