English 2017 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Social Programs In The United States, Teenage Life, Human Sexual Activity

• School: Western University
• Department: English
• Course: English 2017
• Professor: Riley Mc Donald

Document Summary

Discourse: the way speech and writing work in conjunction with specific structures and institutions to shape social reality. Among many elements, discourse 1) produces subjects (i. e. how medical science develops the concept of insanity; how law constructs the notion of the criminal), and 2) produces narratives about those subjects. Discourse never really stays still, constantly moving and reacting with contemporary culture. Historical research shows that the idea of childhood is a relatively recent one, emerging in the. 18th century in conjunction with new ideas about education and psychological development. The category youth" emerges more clearly in sociology are around the late 1920s in conjunction with american theories about urban development-and, more specifically, with urban breakdown. The commonly identified problems of urban life-alienation, rootlessness, social deprivation-get project onto youth, demographic category that is itself thought to be characterised by confusion and social alienation. o"brien & szeman 72.