Right to 'woke': a critical discourse analysis on the discursive trajectory of ‘woke’

The objective of this thesis was to uncover the way in which terminology travels and spreads and is rearticulated by opposing forces to use against progressivism. This paper analyzed the trajectory of the word ‘woke’ using the qualitative research method known as critical discourse analysis (CDA) and a framework inspired by Pierre Bourdieu and Stuart Hall. This discourse was traced from the United States, to the United Kingdom, to the Netherlands. Its primary findings are that 1) the strategic appropriation of antiracist language travels along key nodes through public discourse; 2) these key nodes are powerful by way of their association with (in)formal networks and institutions, thus functioning as amplifiers of discourse, which in turn plays a key role in the calibration of meaning and political alignment; 3) this calibration of meaning and political alignment happens through these public discourses, creating a coherent position out of opposition to 'woke' from what struggled to politically align before ‘woke’ was successfully appropriated. Despite this thesis’ limitations, it provides a potential framework to analyze this phenomenon, as well as a starting point for further and more elaborate analysis of this topic.