In this paper I show how Gunther Kress, throughout his work, struggled with the contradictory poles of intellectual attraction that lead many other thinkers to firmly anchor themselves to fixed positions and safeguard themselves from doubt. I will focus on two issues, the tension between social determination and individual agency, and the tension between ‘critique’ and ‘design’. In his early work, Kress spoke of the individual as socially determined and of linguistic competence as a product of the social structure. Later he began to emphasize individual agency (and the agency of ‘communities’) rather than the power of ideologies and institutions. But the tension between the two continued to be felt throughout his work. Secondly, though Kress was one of the originators of critical discourse analysis, he later distanced himself from it, arguing that critique looks backwards and focuses on power and convention, while design looks forward and focuses on empowerment and innovation. But here too, the issue was never finally settled, and Kress recognized that critique and design are interdependent. Finally, I will describe Kress’s ‘exploratory’ approach to semiotics in which an open attitude to data, dialogue, and the interdependence of text analysis and theory-formation play a fundamental role.

中文翻译：

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Gunther Kress 工作中的决心和能动性

在本文中，我展示了冈瑟·克雷斯如何在他的整个著作中与知识吸引力的矛盾两极作斗争，这导致许多其他思想家牢牢地固定在固定的立场上并保护自己免受怀疑。我将重点关注两个问题，即社会决定与个人能动性之间的紧张关系，以及“批判”与“设计”之间的紧张关系。在克雷斯的早期著作中，他谈到个人是由社会决定的，而语言能力是社会结构的产物。后来他开始强调个人能动性（以及“社区”的能动性）而不是意识形态和机构的力量。但在他的整个作品中，仍能感受到两者之间的紧张关系。其次，克雷斯虽然是批评性话语分析的鼻祖之一，但后来却与批评性话语分析保持距离，认为批评是向后看的，关注的是权力和惯例，而设计是向前看的，关注的是赋权和创新。但这里的问题也从未最终得到解决，克雷斯认识到批评和设计是相互依存的。最后，我将描述克雷斯对符号学的“探索性”方法，其中对数据、对话以及文本分析和理论形成的相互依赖的开放态度发挥着根本作用。