An analysis of transitivity in America as bullring arena by Jim Morrison

Abstract

This work explores aspects of ideology, as defined by Fairclough (1992), in a text written by the American poet Jim Morrison. The poet wrote his poems in the pinnacle of counterculture, social movement with libertarian characteristics risen in the sixties. Methodologically, the study is guided by Critical Discourse Analysis. We used Hallidays Functional Grammar (HALLIDAY, 1985; 2004), a theoretical tool which is very utilized by Linguistics researchers. In the poem America As Bullring Arena (MORRISON, 1993), using transitivity, we investigated the ideological relations expressed in its discourse compared to the values of the context in which it was produced (counterculture). The analysis results show that the authors work is in line with the ideologies of the counterculture movement. America As Bullring Arena implies the interests of counterculture.