A Linguistic Analysis of Houston Stewart Chamberlain’s German Nationalist War Essays, 1914-1917 Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Camilla Leathem Queen Mary, University of London Submitted in June 2013 1 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 7 1.1 Houston Stewart Chamberlain .......................................................................... 7 1.2 Research Topic .................................................................................................. 9 1.3 Research Motivation ......................................................................................... 9 1.4 Hypothesis and Research Questions ............................................................... 12 1.5 Research Methods ........................................................................................... 13 1.6 Research Aims ................................................................................................ 13 1.7 Thesis Structure ............................................................................................... 15 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 17 2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 17 2.2 Literature on Houston Stewart Chamberlain ................................................... 17 2.2.1 National Socialist Writers on Chamberlain .................................................. 19 2.2.2 Chamberlain as One of Many ...................................................................... 20 2.2.3 Linguistic Analyses of Chamberlain’s Writings ......................................... 22 2.3 Critical Approaches to Analysing Persuasive Ideological Discourse ............. 25 2.4 Linguistic Means in the Critical Analysis of Discourse ................................. 32 2.5 Conceptual Metaphor Theory ......................................................................... 35 2.6 CDA and Pragma-Dialectical Theory ............................................................. 37 2.7 Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS) .................................................. 40 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................. 48 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 48 3.2 Critical Discourse Analysis ............................................................................. 48 3.3 CDA in the Analysis of Manipulative Political Propaganda ........................... 51 3.4 Particulars of the Theoretical Framework ........................................................ 53 3.4.1 Critical Disagreement Space ........................................................................ 53 3.4.2 Discursive Strategies of Manipulation ........................................................ 55 3.4.3 Topoi ............................................................................................................ 57 3.4.4 Pragma-Dialectical Fallacies ....................................................................... 58 3.4.5 Rhetorical Devices ....................................................................................... 60 3.4.6 Metaphor Scenarios and Motifs .................................................................. 61 3.5 Synergy between methods of Corpus Linguistics and CDA ........................... 62 4. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 63 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 63 4.2 Analysis and Contextualisation of Thematic Content ..................................... 64 4.3 Preliminary Linguistic Observations .............................................................. 65 4.4 Corpus Analysis: ............................................................................................. 66 4.5 Qualitative Text Analysis ................................................................................ 68 4.5.1 Strategies, Topoi and Fallacies .................................................................... 70 4.5.2 Linguistic Forms and Means ....................................................................... 72 2 5. SYNTHESIS OF THE WAR ESSAYS’ TOPICAL CONTENT AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT ..................................................................................... 74 5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 74 5.2 Tradition vs. Progress ..................................................................................... 74 5.3 War Guilt ......................................................................................................... 79 5.4 Lies and Misleading in the Press ..................................................................... 83 5.5 Veiled Anti-Semitism in Context .................................................................... 87 5.6 Subjectivism and Perception in Contemporaneous Scholarship ..................... 94 6. PRELIMINARY LINGUISTIC OBSERVATIONS ..................................... 97 6.1 Significance of Pre-Reading ........................................................................... 97 6.2 Dogma and Authorial Presence ....................................................................... 97 6.3 Abstraction and Epistemics ............................................................................. 99 6.4 Initial Insights ............................................................................................... 100 7. CORPUS ANALYSIS ..................................................................................... 101 7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 101 7.2 Keywords Analysis ....................................................................................... 103 7.2.1 Results of the Keywords Analysis ............................................................. 105 7.3 Concordance Analysis ................................................................................... 110 7.3.1 ‘Carrot and Stick’ Persuasion .................................................................... 113 7.3.1.1 German Superiority by Contrast (‘The Carrot’)................................. 115 7.3.1.1.1 The Superiority and Uniqueness of the German Ideal ............... 119 7.3.1.1.2 Superior German Intelligence vs. English Ignorance ................ 123 7.3.1.1.3 German War Innocence ............................................................. 126 7.3.1.2 German Deficits (‘The Stick’) ........................................................... 129 7.3.2 Further Rhetorical Strategies ..................................................................... 134 7.3.2.1 Strategies of Author Positioning ........................................................ 134 7.3.2.2 Strategies of Reader Positioning ........................................................ 139 7.3.2.3 Naturalisation of Opinion as Fact ...................................................... 142 7.4 Summary ....................................................................................................... 147 8. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF HOUSTON STEWART CHAMBERLAIN’S DISCURSIVE STRATEGIES .................................... 153 8.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 153 8.2 Justifying the Means ..................................................................................... 154 8.2.1 Metaphors of das Innere ............................................................................ 154 8.2.2 Motifs of Misunderstanding, Ignorance and Misleading .......................... 157 8.2.3 Motifs of Lies and Misleading Appearances ............................................. 158 8.2.4 Metaphors of Entanglement, Opacity, and Sight....................................... 161 8.2.5 Motifs and Metaphors of Chaos, Confusion, Insanity and Illusion ........... 166 8.2.6 The Construction of ‘Desireable’ versus ‘Undesireable’ Readers ............ 170 3 8.2.7 Strategies of Legitimisation: Authorisation by Expert and ............................. Personal Authority ..................................................................................... 172 8.2.8 Strategies of Legitimisation: Endorsement of Authorial Character .......... 179 8.2.9 Strategies of Legitimisation: The Author as Problem Solver .................... 181 8.2.9.1 Chamberlain as Teacher ..................................................................... 182 8.2.9.2 Chamberlain as Provider of Truth ...................................................... 184 8.2.9.3 Chamberlain as Archaeologist ........................................................... 186 8.2.9.4 Chamberlain as Bringer of Sight to the Blind .................................... 190 8.2.9.5 Chamberlain as Guide ........................................................................ 194 8.3 Justifying the Message .................................................................................. 196 8.3.1 Strategies of Legitimisation ....................................................................... 196 8.3.1.1 Topoi of Factuality and Evidence .....................................................