Identity through a Language Lens

«This collection of articles is a sociolinguistic response to the recent explosion of scholarly interest in issues of identity. Identity is central to all human beings as we are all concerned with how to conceive of ourselves, present ourselves and comprehend our relationships with others. The book tackles the problem of how personal identity is made visible and intelligible to others through language, and how this may be constrained. Part One, Emblematic identities, focuses on the construction of self-definitions based on various forms of group identities, including national and ethnic ones. Part Two, Multicultural Identities, looks at negotiation of identities in multicultural contexts involving relations of power, drawing on examples from Europe and the Americas. Finally, Part Three, Emergent Identities, collects empirical studies based on a close reading of texts in which identities are being articulated and negotiated.» (Hanna Puaczewska, University of Regensburg)

Autorentext

Kamila Ciepiela holds an MA in English Studies and PhD in English Linguistics from the University of ód (Poland) where she lectures on General and Applied Linguistics and EFL. She has trained teachers of English and has taught EFL students at University of ód , Academy of Management in ód , Jan Kochanowski University in Piotrkóv Trybunalski. Her research interests span issues of the self and identity in second/foreign language learning and teaching, and how the two are embedded in different discourse practices. The author is particularly interested in linguistic performance of the self.

Inhalt

Contents: Kamila Ciepiela: From language as an identity marker to language as a toolkit for identity performance - Costanza Cucchi: Language and national identity. Applications of Hofstede's cultural dimensions - Magdalena Jurewicz: European identity as an answer to the problem of the national identity of the interpreter - Ne e Kaya/Didar Akar: Ambivalent belongings: Constructing identities in immigrant discourse - Aniela Korzeniowska: The complexity of identity and a sense of belonging as revealed through 'English, a Scottish essay' by Douglas Dunn - Barbara Loester: Scotland and Bavaria: Regional affiliation and linguistic identity in 'peripheral' communities - Laura Mahalingappa: Identity construction in context: Lexical variation following the Turkish language reform - Agnieszka Miksza: 'Tridentity' of Elisabeth Gilbert in Eat, pray, love : One woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia (2006) - Bryan Meadows: 'Now here I am influent in Spanish': Negotiating monolingual Hispanic identities at the bilingual US/Mexico border - Jacqueline Peters: Be(com)ing Jamaican: (Re)-constructing an ethno-cultural identity - Davi S. Reis: English as an international language and linguistic legitimacy: Empowering ESL speakers' identities - Hanne Tange: Do university lecturers have linguistic rights? - Katharina Vajta: Construction of national identities in language textbooks - Argiris Archakis/Sofia Lampropoulou: 'Just for fun mate': The construction of masculinity in Greek youth storytelling - Kamila Ciepiela: Small story telling in performance of teenage girl situated identities - Elizabeth R. Miller: Analyzing linguistic constructs and interactional performance in investigating emergent identities - Douglas Mark Ponton: What's in a (Brazilian shirt) name? Discursive issues involved in achieving membership of a community of radio listeners - Dorota Guzowska: The construction of parental identity in 17th century English autobiographies - Danuta Wi niewska: Whose identity? The role of self-mention in action research reports in the field of EFL pedagogy.