Discourse is a way of representing knowledge that constructs a topic while limiting alternatives

Evidence

By “discourse,” we mean a particular way of representing “the West,” “the Rest,” and the relations between them. A discourse is a group of statements which provide a language for talking about—i.e., a way of representing—a particular kind of knowledge about a topic. When statements about a topic are made within a particular discourse, the discourse makes it possible to construct the topic in a certain way. It also limits the other ways in which the topic can be constructed. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 567

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition of discourse as constrained construction of a topic — foundational vocabulary for the critical-theory toolkit.
• XREF: This is the constitutive/constructivist Foucauldian sense of discourse that downstream Islamophobia readings will assume; connects to how representation constructs rather than mirrors the Other. — connects to: Nouns in public discourse govern sentences authoritatively, blocking negation. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 383; Discourses are systems of shared cultural meanings built from interlocking root metaphors. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 665; the MOC “The Word Is a Fence: Language as Battleground, Property, and Partition”
• DEEPTHINKING: The double move — discourse enables a construction while foreclosing alternatives — is the generative tension behind all representation-of-the-Other analysis.