This thesis explores post-conflict vrctimhood as it manifests itself In Northern Ireland. While extensive research has been carried out into the subject, most research in psychology considers victlmhood to be. a cognitive or perhaps a clinical phenomenon. This thesis proposes that victimhood is fundamentally a the rhetorical phenomenon by which the possessors of the status can use it to argue about what should be done for victims and perpetrators. Because It is a coveted status, people argue about the limits of victimhood, to whom it applies and how it should be handled. These arguments about what a victim is, who is a victim and what should be done about victims are the focus of these studies. The thesis follows in the tradition of rhetorical and discursive psychology by offering a rhetorical conception of a subject not typically treated as rhetoric. In it, recent research into victimhood is considered which can be reconceptualied in rhetorical terms. The empirical chapters begin by looking at how the nature of victim hood is constructed in newspapers through the use of metaphors. How these newspaper articles argue about what should be done about victims is then explored, by considering their use of argumentation (Chapter 4). The ideological dilemmas surrounding these arguments suggest that there are always opposing ideas to any ideas about how to dea1 with victims. Chapters 5 and 6 explore how the definition of a victim ·and ways of dealing with victims are argued about in political manifestos. Chapters 7 and 8 look at the same issues as in 5 and 6 but from the perspective of victims. Several focus groups are analyse~d and in Chapter 8 particular emphasis is placed on how a rhetorical perspective on needs can give insight into arguments about victimhood.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:675432 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | McNeill, Andrew Raymond |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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