عنوان

The relationship between the exercise of political power and language during the cultural revolution in Inner Mongolia, 1967-1969

Number

TLets513922

Title Proper

The relationship between the exercise of political power and language during the cultural revolution in Inner Mongolia, 1967-1969

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Brown, Kerry

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Christiansen, Flemming

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Leeds

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2004

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of Leeds

Text preceding or following the note

2004

Text of Note

This is an analysis of the relationship between language contained in political documents and the exercise of power and authority from the Cultural Revolution in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China from 1967 to 1969. It is based on analytic methods found in the works of Foucault, Bourdieu, Gramsci and others. The material analysed falls into four periods. The first phase in 1967 saw the initial impact of the CR manifesting itself locally by causing conflict between two key entities in the IMAR - the army and student rebellion groups. The response by the Centre to this was the conduct of dialogues with the local groups, resulting in the issuing of a key document, the '13th April Decision,' to 'resolve' the local problems and impose hegemony from the Centre, through promoting standardised narratives and a specific ideology - CR Maoism. The -second phase from 1967 to 1968 saw the implementation of this strategy through the attack on the local leader, Ulanfu. During this period the discourse to 'handle' the region was articulated promoting a narrative and ideology from the Centre in Beijing of power based on class, excluding any assertions of the primacy of ethnicity and nationality locally. The third phase from 1968 to 1969 saw the promotion by the Centre of the newly installed leader, Teng Haiqing, using this new discourse. In this period, a local enemy - the Inner Mongolian People's Party - was gradually articulated. The final phase in 1969 saw the social turmoil and violence caused by the purge of those claimed to be members of this party, and the withdrawal of support from the Centre for Teng Haiqing, resulting in his use of a self-critical language, the creation of an adapted narrative and ideology, conveyed through a new discourse in which the key issues of class and ethnicity/nationality were approached in different ways. The focus of this thesis is the signification of power in language and discourse through this period, and the techniques by which to describe and understand this.

Brown, Kerry

Christiansen, Flemming

University of Leeds

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y