Discourse analysis in historical research is associated with

In the last 30 years, historical discourse analysis has matured as a result of improved data sources and access, as well as enlarged ideas of discourse analysis.

Key Points

• ​Discourse analysis is a form of inquiry that examines written or spoken language in relation to its social context.
• Discourse analysis is used to analyse bigger chunks of language, such as full conversations, texts, or collections of texts, rather than focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words, or phrases.
• It concentrates on the social aspects of communication and how people use language to attain specific outcomes.
• Through this Multiple degrees of analysis is possible with the sources chosen.
• Foucault in his book In the History of Sexuality argued that a new discourse of "sexuality" had fundamentally changed the way we think about desire, pleasure, and our innermost selves.

Thus, Discourse analysis in historical research is associated with Foucault.

Additional Information

• Foucault defines discourse as a "means of constituting knowledge, coupled with the social practices, forms of subjectivity, and power relations that inhere in such knowledge and their relations."
• Discourses are more than just a way of thinking and making sense. 
• Discourse analysis, in contrast to linguistic approaches that focus solely on the rules of language use, stresses the contextual meaning of words.