جامعه شناسی کاربردی (Jun 2017)
Discourse-Historical Approach in Critical Discourse Analysis of Cosmetic Surgery in Iran: The Documentary "Nose, Iranian Style" in Focus
Abstract
Introduction Human beings are creatures with physical bodies and material body is a construct in which gender, race, ethnic, and class differences are shaped and manifested. Thus, the focused attention to body together with its prevalence in the sociological texts, in particular within the recent two decades, has raised considerable debates concerning issues including identity, social movements, consumer culture, lifestyle, and ethics (Zokaie, 2007). One of the issues proposed in relation to the lifestyle indicators is body management which is so pervasive among the youths nowadays. Body management can be stated as the actions and deeds including appearance, make-up, sports interests, and dietary. According to the analysts and based on some statistics and evidence, the attention to the body has dramatically increased in Iran in recent years (Zaer Rezaie, 2006) so that over 36000 Iranians undergo cosmetic surgery each year, as said by unofficial statistics. It is worth mentioning that Iran holds a high rank among different cosmetic surgeries, e.g. the first place in rhinoplasty or nose surgery in 2010. In the present study, given the importance of body in general, problematic status of plastic surgery, and growing desire to manipulate the body in Iran in particular, the documentary "Nose, Iranian Style" was investigated using discourse-historical approach of critical discourse analysis (CDA). Accordingly, it was tried to answer the following questions: How was the body articulated as a discourse in this documentary and which of the discourses related to the body were focused and decentered respectively? Generally, how were the cosmetic surgery and body represented in the documentary "Nose, Iranian Style"? In what social discourses was the documentary made and how was this discourse setting represented in the documentary? The conceptual framework of this study and its fundamental concepts include body, body management, and cosmetic surgery which will be defined in the following. Body: body is generally perceived as the collection of the flesh and organic bones; however, this concept enjoys a particular style and role and is considered to be under the control of the culture in the cultural studies. It is constantly called for playing roles or doing physical activities in the form of dietary, exercise or cosmetic surgery (Barker, 2008, p. 786). Body management: as one of the lifestyle indicators, body management is regarded as any constant control and manipulation of the apparent and outward features of the body which is done by different surgeries and make-up (Chavoshian & Azadarmaki, 2002, p. 64). Cosmetics and medical care behaviors are among different dimensions of this indicator. Cosmetic Surgery: cosmetic Surgery has no medical significance or necessity and is purely for the sake of beauty. This surgery is true of healthy people (kuczynski, 2006, p.8; as cited in Feynman, 2010). Contrary to the reconstructive surgery, cosmetic surgery is to improve the organ which is already normal without any surgery (Hayes & Jones, 2013). In this respect, these surgeries, in Jones’s (2008) terms, are selective. Material and Methods Having considered the society as a discourse setting, emphasizing the significance of the visual culture and media representation, and taking this presumption that the dominant discourse system of the society produces the cultural products including movies (here documentary) which are under the control of power, the authors of this study made an attempt analyze the documentary "Nose, Iranian Style". Documentaries, particularly social-political documentaries, are of the media texts that are of particular interest to audio-visual media audience due to their close relationship with the power structure (Alavi, 2013). "Nose, Iranian Style" was made by Mehrdad Oskouei in 2005. In the reconstruction tradition, this study tried to qualitatively provide a critical discourse analysis of the text of the documentary. Moreover, the theoretical approach of the study was sociological and in the domain of cultural studies. The significance of the cultural studies approach has been due to the interconnection of the physical, cultural, and social aspects of the human experiences. This study was based on the discourse-historical approach of Ruth Wodak in CDA. As one of the scholars in critical discourse analysis, Wodak regards discourse as complex mingling of the discourse actions which are interrelated simultaneously and successively and indicate itself in and through the social areas of actions, genres, symbols, and oral or written texts. In Wodak’s words (2001, pp. 11-12), discourse analysis is to indicate how discourses are made by social institutions and conversely in what ways social institutions make those discourses; what function ideology has in social institutions and how the power is achieved and reserved. To operationalize the discourse-historical approach, Wodak refers to five discourse strategies including nomination, prediction, argumentation, perspetivisation, Intensification, and Mitigation which each are employed in the form of the conflict of competing discourses for the sake of their own positive and the other’s negative representations. Conclusion With regards to the institution, it can be said that the documentary and its dominant narration were laid upon a number of effective institutions concerning the body and cosmetic surgery, namely education, religious, and medical institutions whose fields of action and speakers were schools and only girl students, religious schools and clergymen and preachers, and hospitals, medical conferences and physicians, surgeons, and nurses respectively. Another institute was cultural institution whose representatives were the staff and advocates of media, arts, and cinema. Within the school institution, the documentary solely highlighted the students’ narration and eliminated the teachers, instructors, and educators. At this level, students largely agreed with the cosmetic surgery. The medical discourse concerning the body was heard from the voice of plastic surgeons through which they dramatically and confidently confirmed such actions and talked about the unique and artistic expertise of the cosmetic surgeons, economical prices of the surgery, its positive consequences and social privileges obtained due to the surgery. All in all, they advocated the nose surgery and the significance of the physical body. Another institution was religious institution which found a public arena to talk and deliver a speech. At this level, clergymen and preachers, instead of directly and explicitly condemning nose surgery, deeply and pathologically talked about why the Islamic culture of the youths of the 60s in Iran faded out, how the war discourse was formed and the values of the Islamic society went down. Among their reasons, loss of identity, alienation, flaw, apparent lack, and self-centeredness were mostly highlighted. In the arts arena, particularly cinema, the experts considered the operated noses as a problem making all the applicants of acting the same and expressed their dissent in this regard. Moreover, another part of the documentary was about those who had already undergone the nose surgery including both girls and boys. On one hand, these respondents confirmed this action and referring to it as a “right”, they stated that they accepted the suggestion of the physicians and relatives and underwent this surgery. On the other hand, they were not dare enough to take responsibility for their actions individually and were placed in the dialectics like trust-doubt, anxiety-fun, and pleasure-individuality. Generally speaking, the results of this study revealed that in the discourse of the documentary, institutions like education, religion, medicine, and arts were the main elements. Indeed, the documentary, as a discourse text, was the manifestation of the discourse conflict and value conflicts of the related discourses. The narration of the documentary also indicated that none of the aforementioned discourses preceded the other and dominated the discourse setting. In other words, as implied, the narration indicated that none of the central discourses concerning the body can totally be hegemonic due to the changes occurred and existed in the social context of Iran and can dominate the mentioned arena.
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