Cult: A Landscape Of Power And Language
From a public’s perspective, cults are often associated with fanatic behavior and marginal beliefs. However, the practices of cults do not come from nowhere. Created by a discourse of fear, of unknown and of change, cults fill a vacuum for individuals and society at large.
Cult is a necessary constitutive element in the construction of social-cultural formation. They have been, and continue to be, an emerging field of language and power. In the power structure within cults, language (including visual language such as symbols and images) is used as a tool to maintain authority, and further set the boundaries in comparison with other societal groups—be they religious or non-religious. How is the perceived legitimacy achieved? What is the role of rhetoric in creating and reinforcing the associated ideologies? This research will present a broad range of methodological approaches that analyze the formation of cults as a cultural element, their presentation and function in society, as well as the language-power system they use as a tool for social control, through a series of case studies. Furthermore, this research will apply the idea of “cult” as an adjective to several cultural phenomena and analyze the essence of cult representation in contemporary society.
