Genres and Public Events to Understand Discourse in Social Context: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ‘Fatima Kori’

Abstract

This study is a critical discourse analysis of one discourse genre – ‘fatima kori’- in the multicultural community of South Wollo, Ethiopia. Discourses are seen to affect our views on all things; it is not possible to avoid discourse. Discourses is a way of representing aspects of the world - the processes, relations and structures of the material world, the mental world of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and the social world. Like elsewhere, in the traditional Ethiopian cultures, there are many social practices that govern conscience. There are many rules of thumb that people agree to govern their lives with. Different discourses from various social practices in the traditional Ethiopian community that are transmitted through oral discourse were taken for analysis. The genre or public event was recorded during two-month partial ethnography participant observation conducted in Tehuledere Woreda in May 2015 G.C. The result of the study shows that there are very unique discourse genres in different societies which are critically observed by the society as vehicles of traditional and customary practices. Discourse has become both the means and the end of social practice. Discourse is shaped by many factors such as culture, language, participant, and history. It, in turn, shapes them back. Discourse shapes and reshapes the thought and practice of the speech community who owns it. This discourse genre is specifically for women participants only. Such genres empower women. Keywords: genre, ‘fatima kori’, female, critical discourse analysis