Scott Turow

In re-reading 'Presumed Innocent,' the one thing that struck me - and I re-read the book four different times in writing 'Innocent,' interested in different things each time - but I did think there were a couple of extra loops in the plot that I probably didn't need. The other thing that sort of amazed me was how discursive the book was.

American Novelist

Kerry James Marshall

Artwork operates on two different levels: On one level, there's artwork as a mode of expressivity, and then there's the other side, where the image is a construction that is meant to engage in a discursive field in order to perform a particular function.

American Artist

Stuart Hall

Politicians always think they know what people feel. It's a fallacy, because there is no such thing as 'the people.' It is a discursive device for summoning the people that you want. You're constructing the people, you're not reflecting the people.

British Activist

Juan Goytisolo

When I write now I do not invent situation, characters, or actions, but rather structures and discursive forms, textual groupings which are combined according to secret affinities among themselves, as in architecture or the plastic arts.

Spanish Poet

Fernando Haddad

What seems not yet to have been sufficiently explored is the emancipating potential of the discursive form of psychoanalysis in politics as a counterpoint of marketing.

Brazilian Politician

John Fiske

Realism is not a matter of any fidelity to an empirical reality, but of the discursive conventions by which and for which a sense of reality is constructed.

American Philosopher

Carrie Brownstein

People barely have anything to say in 140 characters. The last thing we need is a bunch of discursive rambling on Twitter.

American Musician

James Watkins

Television is ever more ambitious, more akin to the Victorian novel with multiple narratives and more discursive material.

English Director

David Longstreth

Kanye has this discursive way of working, getting input from a range of people, that I thought was really cool.

A. R. Ammons

Everything is discursive opinion instead of direct experience.

American Poet

Think of 'discursive' as shifting topics, not sticking closely to one subject in conversation or writing.

Shifts Topic

'Discursive' can imply a casual, conversational manner of discussing various topics without a formal plan.

Casual Tone

In debates or focused discussions, being discursive is typically viewed negatively since clarity is key.

Avoid in Debates

'Discursive' can also mean to proceed with logical arguments, often seen in scholarly contexts.

Logical Arguments

Using 'discursive' in academia implies a thorough exploration of a topic through reasoning.

Elaborate Explanation

'Discursive' in literary contexts often refers to the way ideas are organized and presented in a text.

Written Text

In literary studies, 'discursive' analyzes the conversation style between characters or within the narrative.

Conversation Analysis

 even if you're not sure what it is that you have to say. It may just be a place for civic commiseration. There is a huge disconnect, we believe, between the communicative and discursive space of the Mall

Liz Diller: A giant...

 and they substitute abstract entities for human beings. Here's an example. "The proliferation of nominalizations in a discursive formation may be an indication