Discourse as a key term has wide applicability. As David Howarth remarks in his book Discourse (2000):

“Its growing prominence is not only evident in the increasing number of studies which use the concepts and methods of discourse analysis, but also visible in the widening scope of its deployment . Scholars in academic disciplines as diverse as anthropology, history and sociology; psychoanalysis and social psychology; cultural, gender and post-colonial studies; political science, public policy analysis, political theory and international relations, not to mention linguistics and literary theory, have used the concept of discourse to define and explain problems in their respective fields of study.”

Discourse thereby includes the following connotations as it is applied across disciplines. It is at once text, cognitive schemata, instrument, an ideological and structured system.

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