Sigtuna Workshop
Frame Analysis: Literature in the
Context of Environmental
Discourse
Axel Goodbody
(University of Bath, UK)
Overwiew of the workshop
Introduction to framing
 Aims of the session
 What is framing?
 Primary and secondary frames
 Factors involved in framing
 What are the principal frames in environmental communication?
 How are frames constructed and analysed?
 Two examples of literary framing
Work in small groups
Participants present their work
Conclusions and evaluation
Aims of the session
 to test the usefulness of the concept of framing as a tool in the
environmental humanities,
 whether it gives insight into the structures and dynamics of
environmental communication,
 whether it is it a helpful way of classifying types of message about the
environment,
 whether it can be applied in literary study, and help us define the
contribution of literature (also film and art) to environmental discourse
What is framing?
Definitions
- “the principles of organisation which govern events and our
subjective involvement in them”
(adapted from Goffman1974, pp. 10f. )
- “principles of selection, emphasis and presentation, determined
by assumptions about what exists, what happens, and what
matters” (adapted from Gitlin 1980, p. 6)
- the discursive construction of environmental problems and in
particular the underpinning of arguments with human values.
Primary and secondary frames
Primary or deep frames are:
cognitive structures forged in childhood, held in the
long-term memory, which associate an experience with
particular values
languages reflect the values, worldview and culture of
their speakers through the metaphorical structure of
key concepts
Secondary/ conscious/ strategic/ advocate framing
Frames as rhetorical structures that induce us to filter
our perceptions of the world in particular ways
To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived
reality and make them more salient in a communicating
text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem
definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/
or treatment recommendation”
„
(Entman 1993, p. 52)
„Frames organise central ideas, defining a controversy
to resonate with core values and assumptions. They
allow citizens to rapidly identify why an issue matters,
who might be responsible, and what should be done.”
(Nisbet and Mooney 2000 ,p. 56)
Frame alignment
aligning the framing of an issue with that already present
in the belief system of the public, so as to arouse a
resonance in them and mobilise support. To be
successful, the framing of an issue must usually relate to
the experience of the public (including mediated
experience), and fit in some way with existing cultural
values and narratives
(Snow and Benford 1988)
Factors involved in framing
1.
relating of the message to values
Research into values has revealed quasi-universal clusters
of values, along two main axes:
- openness to change versus conservation
- self-enhancement (hedonism, achievement and power)
versus self-transcendence (universalism and
benevolence)
(Schwartz 2010)
2.
conventions of medium and form
- limitations imposed by the medium
- common narratives in media stories (conflict, human
interest, economic consequences)
- traditional genres
3. shaping influence of culture and language
- concepts with particular resonances (e.g. resulting from
historical experience, institutions and traditions in the
structuring of knowledge)
- structuring metaphors
- myths, stories
At least four locations of frames in the communication
process: communicator, text, receiver, culture
(Entman 1993, p. 52)
What are the principal/ master frames in environmental
communication?
Pairs of opposing value-related deep frames
dominating environmental debates
- whether we conceive of human nature as guided by
self-interest or common interest
- whether we conceive of the family (and state as led by
a strict father or nurturing parent
- whether we conceive of society as legitimately shaped
by elite governance or participative democracy
(Crompton 2010, drawing on Dryzeck 2005)
Common frames in the literature of climate change
- apocalyptic
- pastoral/ elegiac
- conspiracy/ critique of elites
Mobilising narratives in climate change literature
- lamenting Eden (appeals to nostalgia)
- presaging apocalypse (fear)
- constructing Babel (pride)
- celebrating Jubilee (sense of justice)
(Hulme 2009)
How are frames constructed and analysed?
use of keywords and lexical clusters
underlying conceptual metaphors and images
use of personal pronouns
modal expressions implying obligation and prohibition
tacit presuppositions
adaptation of familiar narratives
images
Two examples of literary framing
1. W.G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn, translated by Michael Hulse,
London: Harvill, 1998
Once the herring shoal had been sighted, it was fished during
the following night, and this was done, according to the
natural history of the North Sea already quoted, using nets
two hundred feet long that could take almost a quarter of a
million fish. [...] The nets do not enclose the catch, but rather
present a kind of wall in the water which the fish swim up
against in desperation until at length their gills catch in the
mesh; they are then throttled during the near-eight-hour
process of hauling up and winding in the nets. [...] Given
these quantities, the natural historians sought consolation in
[...] the assumption that the particular physiology of the fish
left them free of the fear and pains that rack the bodies and
souls of higher animals in their death throes. But the truth is
that we do not know what the herring feels.
(The Rings of Saturn, pp. 56f.)
According to Professor Lange, the author or educational
pamphlet F213/1939, the significance of silk cultivation in
Germany lay not only in obviating the need to buy from abroad
[...], but also in the importance silk would have in the dawning
era of aerial warfare [...]. For that reason, it was desirable that
schools should interest the youth of Germany in silk
cultivation. [...] After all, the Professor added, quite apart from
their indubitable utility value, silkworms afforded an almost
ideal object lesson for the classroom. [..]
They were perfectly docile and needed neither cages nor
compounds, and they were suitable for a variety of experiments
(weighing, measuring and so forth) at every stage in their
evolution. They could be used to illustrate the structure and
distinctive features of insect anatomy, insect domestication,
retrogressive mutations, and the essential measures which are
taken by breeders to monitor productivity and selection, including
extermination to pre-empt racial degeneration.
(Rings of Saturn, pp. 293f.)
2. Ian McEwan, Solar, London: Vintage, 2010
“There are a dozen proven ways of making electricity
out of sunlight, but the ultimate goal is still ahead [...].
I’m talking of artificial photosynthesis, of copying the
methods nature took three billion years to perfect. We’ll
use light directly to make cheap hydrogen and oxygen
out of water, and run our turbines night and day, or
we’ll make fuels out of water, sunlight and carbon
dioxide, or we’ll build desalination plants that make
electricity as well as fresh water. Believe me, this will
happen. Solar will expand [...]. Basic science, the
market and our grave situation will determine that this
is the future – logic, not idealism, compels it.“
(Michael Beard in Solar, p. 154)