ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines perspectives on how, on a fundamental, conceptual level, this nexus has been understood. It deals with Jurgen Habermas' attempt to locate the normative grounds of deliberative democracy in the rational foundations of language. The chapter focuses on the role of language in psychoanalytic theory, especially Lacan's original reworking of Saussurean linguistics, and thus Lacan's psychosocial conceptualisation of the symbolic. It examines how Lacan shifted his attention from language to jouissance and discusses rhetorical analysis by first looking at the interdependence of rhetoric and politics. The book reviews corpus analysis, that is, computer-aided statistical analysis of large samples of digitised texts. It summarises research on the characteristics of billboards and party programmes as genres of political communication. The book illustrates applications of the theories, methodologies and genres, pointing to particular links between language and politics.
