The role of hybridity in the constitution of a new genre, antiscience. A Romanian perspective

Abstract

The antiscientific discourse is a social and linguistic construct ensuing from a permanent restructuring of preexisting discourses. The goal of this study is to test whether antiscience qualifies as a genre, which might be a guarantee of its hybrid nature. Secondly, this paper aims to identify some of the most common hybridisation strategies that are used to expand and impose the antiscience genre. The findings confirm the existence of an antiscientific genre in Romania strategically equipped to contradict science and to deny the benefits of scientific discoveries. The analysis reveals that the antiscientific genre has got a parasite lexical behaviour, given that its discourse thrives using science’s technical vocabulary for contrary purposes, depriving science of one of its major tools, which has become a common lexical pool, making it even more difficult to discriminate between arguments. Overall, the article emphasises the predatory character of the antiscientific genre, which thrives on the scientific vocabulary and on mimicking the scientific method (Nature 2009, 237).