The woke discursive formation and the work of ‘woke’ in weaponizing discourses

This paper explores the woke discursive formation, so named because of its key organising term, ‘woke’. This discursive formation is composed of multiple discursive constellations – discourses about ‘woke’, pro-‘woke’, and anti-‘woke’, and clusters of enabling discursive tropes that contribute to the deployment of ‘woke’s’ meaning-making capacities. However, the remit of ‘woke’ extends beyond being an organising concept within the discourses and discursive tropes that invoke it. It serves as a master signifier that performs the functions of an ideological code that activates whatever ontological baggage is embedded within those discourses, impacting the broader discursive field in which the woke discursive formation operates. As an ideological code, it produces a weaponizing effect whereby the intended discursive positions of those articulating progressive discourses fail to cohere or maintain traction. That is the work of ‘woke’. Explaining that work and showing how the woke discursive formation weaponizes its discursive field are the aims of this paper.