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Becoming One Nation. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, Oct 2008, Pages: 196
Many scholars have discussed the ways in which former
East and
West Germany are not reuniting, but how the wall in
people’s minds
remains while the remnants of the actual wall have
long been
destroyed. The author of this book thus approaches
the question of
Germany’s unity by looking at its future - the
children that were
born post Germany's reunification.
Through a discourse analyses in 10th grade history
classrooms of
former East and West Berlin high schools, this book
addresses
matters of national identity and unity from a linguistic
anthropological standpoint. Based on Michael Billig’s
theory that
national identities are inculcated through every-day
banal
interactions, student-teacher communication is
examined through
the lenses of language socialization and language
ideology. Here,
the speakers’ use of pronouns and greeting practices
and the
juxtaposition of the local Berlin dialect to the
German standard
language are analyzed in their power to create a
shared national
identity.
This book gives new insights to anyone interested in
Germany's
reunification process from a micro-analytical, bottom-up
perspective.
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