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Abstract

Discourse and Social Psychology by Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell has been an influential text in recent developments in social psychology. This paper examines certain aspects of the book's `linguistic resources'-though it does not use a discourse analytic approach and is neither a review nor a critique. Instead, through fragmentary readings informed by recent feminist writings, the paper raises questions about the `specific reality' (Potter & Wetherell, 1987, p. 2) constructed in and through the text. Particular attention is paid to binary oppositions which are implicated in Potter and Wetherell's textual worlding—reality and representation, inner and outer worlds, nature and culture. The paper attempts not to expose `errors' or offer solutions to controversial issues but to suggest problematics which emerge from this construction of a particular discursive `world'.

Keywords

binary opposition phallogocentrism discourse analysis

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Speaking Subjects,Discursive Worlds

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