Bernard Shaw's play “Pygmalion” as pedagogical discourse

Abstract EN

The current article rooted in discourse linguistics analyses George Bernard Shaw’s play ‘pygmalion”.

the term “discourse” is interpreted in accordance with Michel Foucault’s views, highlighting the cultural and sociohistorical dependences of discourses.

in other words, according to the adopted Foucauldian discourse theory, language and identities of the speakers and authors are predetermined by a number of different factors, most prominent of them being historical, societal and cultural contexts of the production of statements.

the underpinnings that the research heavily draws on include thematic and discourse analyses.

pedagogical discourse is interpreted in relation to learning and / or teaching, either institutional or outside of school or university.

the teacher and the student are recognized as the main actors of this discourse.

George Bernard Shaw’s literary work is presented as pedagogical discourse, and yet it would be even more accurate to speak of it as an interdiscursive phenomenon, with pedagogical elements at its core.

the article sheds light on peculiarities, superstitions, fallacies and prejudices of the early twentieth century pedagogical discourse, presenting an opportunity to continue research by tracking the historical development of pedagogical discourse up to the present time.