From “Guilty Pleasure” to Critique: Critical Discourse Studies, Reflexivity and Pop Culture
Published:
Jul 25, 2025
Keywords:
reflection, Greek television, ideology, identities, sociolinguistics
Abstract
This reflexive article traces my trajectory in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and pop culture, exploring the recurring tension between scholarly “guilt” and personal “pleasure.” Growing up, watching Greek popular TV programs was a cherished pastime among the women in my family, yet it often clashed with the cultural values of our leftist background, which prioritized politically engaged art and critical thinking. I argue that CDS faces a similar challenge, frequently privileging the analysis of elite voices while neglecting the affective dimensions of meaning making. Adopting a more reflexive approach could help CDS become more inclusive, theoretically vibrant, and socially relevant.
Article Details
- How to Cite
-
Stamou, A. G. (2025). From “Guilty Pleasure” to Critique: Critical Discourse Studies, Reflexivity and Pop Culture. The Greek Review of Social Research, 165, 27–38. https://doi.org/10.12681/grsr.42198
- Section
- Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (preferably in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Althusser, L. (1971). Lenin and philosophy. Monthly Review Press.
Billig, M. (2008). The language of Critical Discourse Analysis: The case of nominalization. Discourse & Society, 19(6), 783–800. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926508095897
Bucholtz, M. (2001). Reflexivity and critique in discourse analysis. Critique of Anthropology, 21(2), 165–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X0102100204
Bucholtz, M. (2002). Youth and cultural practice. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31, 525–552. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085443
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), 584–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407
Chouliaraki, L. & Fairclough, N. (1999). Discourse in late modernity. Edinburgh University Press.
Coupland, N. (2003). Sociolinguistic authenticities. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(3), 417–431. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00233
Coupland, N. (2007). Style: Language variation and identity. Cambridge University Press.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Polity Press.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analyzing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. Routledge.
Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical Discourse Analysis. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as social interaction (pp. 258-284). Sage.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge. Tavistock.
Gerrard, Y. (2017). Derision, guilt and pleasure: Teen drama fandom in a social media age (Doctoral dissertation, University of Leeds). White Rose eTheses Online. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/20776/
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). Arnold.
Jørgensen, M., & Phillips, L. (2002). Discourse analysis as theory and method. Sage.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge.
Lippi-Green, R. (1994). Accent, standard language ideology and discriminatory pretext in the courts. Language in Society, 23, 163–198. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500017826
Machin, D. (2013). What is multimodal Critical Discourse Studies?. Critical Discourse Studies, 10(4), 347–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2013.813770
Milroy, J. (2001). Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 5, 530–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00163
Moje, E. B., & van Helden, C. (2004). Doing popular culture: Troubling discourses about youth. In J. A. Vadeboncoeur & L. P. Stevens (Eds.), Re/Constructing “the adolescent”: Sign, symbol and body (pp. 211–247). Peter Lang.
Norris, S. (2011). Identity in (inter)action: Introducing multimodal (inter)action analysis. Mouton de Gruyter.
Rogers, R., Malancharuvil-Berkes, E., Mosley, M., Hui, D., & O’Garro Joseph, G. (2005). Critical Discourse Analysis in education: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 365–419. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543075003365
Saltidou, T. P., & Stamou, A. G. (2014). The mediation of 'youth language' in mainstream mass culture: Evidence from a Greek family sitcom. Sociolinguistic Studies, 8(2), 223–248. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v8i2.223
Stamou, A. G. (2001). The representation of non-protesters in a student and teacher protest: A Critical Discourse Analysis of news reporting in a Greek newspaper. Discourse & Society, 12(5), 653–680. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926501012005002
Stamou, A. G. (2011). Speech style and the construction of social division: Evidence from Greek television. Language and Communication, 31(4), 329–344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2011.02.002
Stamou, A. G. (2013). Adopting a critical discourse analytical approach to the mediation of sociolinguistic reality in mass culture: The case of youth language in advertising. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 30(4), 327–346. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2013.815496
Stamou, A. G. (2018a). Synthesizing Critical Discourse Analysis with language ideologies: The example of fictional discourse. Discourse, Context & Media, 23, 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2017.10.001
Stamou, A. G. (2018b). Studying the interactional construction of identities in Critical Discourse Studies: A proposed analytical framework. Discourse & Society, 29(5), 568–589. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926518770268
Stamou, A. G. (2018c). Fictionalization of Germanness in the times of Greek crisis: Deconstructing the ‘two strangers’ frame in TV sketch comedies. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 13(4), 377–397. https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2019.1579823
Stamou, A. G. (2023). (in Greek). Representations of age fluidity in the discourse of Mega TV comedies of the 1990s and the 2000s. In V. Vamvakas & G. Paschalidis (Eds.), The Box: Images of contemporary Greece in the private television (pp. 297-312). Brainfood.
Stamou, A. G. (2024a). Critical Discourse Studies of popular culture and national identity construction: The case of Germanness in the context of the Greek debt crisis. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 53(3–4), 143–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2024.2431805
Stamou, A. G. (2024b). ‘‘Not that we’re not hard-working ourselves, but Germans are the model’’: Mediatizing Germans as the national other in the video project Easy Languages. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2024.2396990
Stamou, A. G., Agrafioti, A., & Dinas, K. D. (2012). Representations of youth (language) in Greek TV commercials. Journal of Youth Studies, 15(7), 909–928. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2012.693591
Stamou, A. G., & Christou, S. (2017). Sociolinguistic representations of the military in Greek comedy films: Laughing at the army. Pragmatics & Society, 8(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.8.1.01sta
Stamou, A. G., & Dimopoulou, A. D. (2015). (in Greek). Sociolinguistic representations of gender identity construction in Greek television: The case of the TV series Working Woman. Linguistics/Glossologia, 23, 23–44.
Stamou, A. G., Maroniti, K. S., & Dinas, K. D. (2012). Representing ‘traditional’ and ‘progressive’ women in Greek television: The role of ‘feminine’/‘masculine’ speech styles in the mediation of gender identity construction. Women’s Studies International Forum, 35(1), 38–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2011.10.004
Stamou, A. G., Lefkaditou, A., Schizas, D., & Stamou, G. P. (2009). The discourse of environmental information: Representations of nature and forms of rhetoric in the information center of a Greek reserve. Science Communication, 31(2), 187–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547009332652
Stamou, A. G., & Padeliadu, S. (2009). Discourses of disability by teacher candidates: A Critical Discourse Analysis of their written responses to a disability simulation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39(3), 509–540. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00447.x
Stamou, A. G., & Paraskevopoulos, S. (2006). Representing protected areas: A Critical Discourse Analysis of tourism destination building in a Greek travel magazine. International Journal of Tourism Research, 8, 431–449. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.584
Stamou, A. G., & Saltidou, T. P. (2015). 'Right you are (if you think so)': The sociolinguistic construction of youth identity in a Greek family sitcom. Journal of Greek Media & Culture, 1(1), 93–112. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgmc.1.1.93_1
van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Ideology: A multidisciplinary approach. Sage.
van Leeuwen, T. (1996). The representation of social actors. In C. R. Caldas Coulthard & M. Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis (pp. 32–70). Routledge.
