Language and Social Change in Central Europe: Discourses on Policy, Identity and the German Language

305 Pages·2010·1.898 MB·

by  Patrick Stevenson, Jenny Carl

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Language and Social Change in Central Europe n Language and
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Discourses on Policy, Identity and the German Language S
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PATRICK STEVENSON & JENNY CARL c Social Change
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h in Central Europe
This book explores the dynamics of language and social change in central Europe in the context
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of the end of the Cold War and eastern expansion of the European Union. One outcome of the n
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profound social transformations in central Europe since the Second World War has been the
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reshaping of the relationship between particular languages and linguistic varieties, especially
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between ‘national’ languages and regional or ethnic minority languages. Previous studies have
Discourses on Policy, Identity
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investigated these transformed relationships from the macro perspective of language policies,
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while others have taken more fine-grained approaches to individual experiences with language. n and the German Language
Combining these two perspectives for the first time – and focusing on the German language, tr
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which has a uniquely complex and problematic history in the region – the authors offer an
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understanding of the complex constellation of language politics in central Europe. E
PATRICK STEVENSON & JENNY CARL
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Stevenson and Carl’s analysis draws on a range of theoretical, conceptual and analytical r
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approaches – language ideologies, language policy, positioning theory, discourse analysis,
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narrative analysis and life histories – and a wide range of data sources, from European and e
national language policies to individual language biographies. The authors demonstrate how
the relationship between German and other languages has played a crucial role in the politics
of language and processes of identity formation in the recent history of central Europe.
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PATRICK STEVENSON is Professor of German and Linguistic Studies at the University of T
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Southampton. He has published widely in the field of German sociolinguistics. JENNY CARL IC
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currently works as a Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. S
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ISBN 978 0 7486 3598 6 N
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Edinburgh University Press C
22 George Square A
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Edinburgh L
EH8 9LF
www.euppublishing.com
Jacket image: © Alexander Friedrich/iStockphoto.com
Jacket design: www.paulsmithdesign.com E
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Language and Social Change
in Central Europe
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To Sue Gal, for her inspiration and encouragement, and in memory of
Stephen Barbour, a much missed colleague and friend
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Language and Social
Change in Central
Europe
Discourses on Policy, Identity
and the German Language
PATRICK STEVENSON
AND JENNY CARL
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Patrick Stevenson and Jenny Carl, 2010
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in 10/12 Times New Roman
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 3598 6 (hardback)
The right of Patrick Stevenson and Jenny Carl
to be identifi ed as authors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
List of Tables ix
Transcription Conventions x
Map of Central Europe xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Discourses on Language in Social Life: Theoretical and
Methodological Orientations 10
2.1 Introduction 10
2.2 Discourses on language 11
2.3 Theorising discourses on language as language ideologies 14
2.4 Questions of scale and the interconnectedness of discourses on
language: methodological implications 34
2.5 Summary and conclusions 39
3 Sociolinguistic Histories and the Footprint of German in
Eastern Central Europe 43
3.1 Introduction 43
3.2 The present situation 45
3.3 A look back into history 50
3.4 The long nineteenth century: the emergence of ‘modern’
linguistic nationalisms 53
3.5 New nation-states after the First World War 57
3.6 After the Second World War: linguistic nationalisms and the
German language during the communist era 61
3.7 Back in the present day: the situation after 1989 66
3.8 Legal frameworks of language and cultural policy: national and
ethnic minorities in the Czech Republic and Hungary 68
3.9 Conclusions 79
4 Language Policy Discourses: Interventions and Intersections 82
4.1 Introduction 82
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vi Contents
4.2 European level discourses 86
4.3 Discourses at national level I: foreign cultural policy in Austria
and Germany 98
4.4 Discourses at national level II: internal language policy in the
Czech Republic and Hungary 107
4.5 Conclusions 124
5 Language (Auto)biographies: Narrating Multilingual Selves 127
5.1 Introduction 127
5.2 Narrative organisation and the creation of coherence 129
5.3 Creating senses of self and identity in life stories 137
5.4 Language biographies: on being a German-speaker 139
5.5 Conclusions 158
6 Language Ideologies: Negotiating Linguistic Identities 161
6.1 Introduction 161
6.2 Categorisation and contextualisation 162
6.3 Categorisation and representation 168
6.4 Positioning and identifi cation 181
6.5 Agency, time and place 191
6.6 Conclusions 199
7 Conclusions 202
Appendices
Appendix A: European Institutions and Documents Concerning
Language Policy 208
Appendix B: Preamble to the European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages 212
Appendix C: Introduction to the 2005 Commission Communication
‘A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism’ 214
Appendix D: Introduction to the 2008 Commission Communication
‘Multilingualism: an asset for Europe and a shared
commitment’ 216
Appendix E: German and Austrian agents and institutions in
foreign cultural policy 218
Appendix F: Extract from ‘Auswärtige Kulturpolitik – Konzeption
2000’ 222
Appendix G: Central focus – ‘Leitbild’ – of the Goethe- Institut 225
Appendix H: Austria’s Auslandskulturkonzept NEU 227
Appendix I: Plattform Kultur Mitteleuropa – Platform Culture
Central Europe 230
Appendix J: Extract from Austria kulturint – Tätigkeitsbericht 2002 231
Appendix K: Czech 2001 White Paper on Education 234
Appendix L: Czech 2004 Education Act 237
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Contents vii
Appendix M: Extract from Czech Follow- up of Action Plan on
Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity 241
Appendix N: Hungarian 1997 Directive Concerning the Education
for National and Ethnic Minorities 243
Appendix O: Extract from 2007 Hungarian National Core
Curriculum 246
Appendix P: Extract from Hungarian Follow- up of Action
Plan for Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity 253
References 255
Index 273
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Acknowledgements
The research on which this book is based was conducted primarily in the
context of a project funded by a major Research Grant awarded by the UK
Arts and Humanities Research Council and we would like to acknowledge
this vital support. An earlier, pilot project was carried out on a shoestring
budget in 1994–5; some of the language biographies collected at that time
were added to our corpus and are referred to in the book. The researcher
on the earlier project, for whose valiant eff orts we are very grateful, was
Katharina Hall.
As anyone who has attempted fi eldwork of the kind undertaken during
our research will know, the cooperation and advice of local ‘gatekeepers’ is
indispensable. Many people gave generously of their time in providing guid-
ance and opening doors for us, are we are indebted to all of them, but we
would particularly like to record our gratitude to Csaba Földes, Zsuzsanna
Gerner, Dorit Hekel, Milan Jeřabek, Volker Menke, Kerstin Mohrdiek,
Jiří Nekvapil, Attila Németh, Lukaš Nowotný, Vaclav Poštolka, István
Schneider, Julia Schweiger and Tamah Sherman. We would also like to thank
the many people in national and local government departments, cultural
agencies and minority representative organisations who agreed to be inter-
viewed for their expertise in language and cultural policy.
We would also like to express our gratitude to Angela Steinwedel,
Bettina Köhler and Hilke Engfer for their help with the bibliography and
transcription.
At Edinburgh University Press, Esmé Watson has been the perfect author’s
editor: enthusiastic, reassuring and extraordinarily patient: thank you!
Finally, we want to express our appreciation for the support – moral, prac-
tical and intellectual – of many friends and colleagues, with whom we have
discussed our ideas and who have commented on parts of the book at various
stages of its development. In particular, we thank Annette Byford, Vasiliki
Georgiou, Péter Maitz, Dick Vigers, and above all Clare Mar- Molinero, who
has, as ever, been an unfl agging source of encouragement and who created
the space to allow the book to get written.
Southampton, August 2009
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List of Tables
3.1 Numbers of learners of English and German in the Czech
Republic 47
3.2 Numbers of learners of English and German in Hungary 47
3.3 Numbers of learners of other foreign languages in the
Czech Republic 47
3.4 Numbers of learners of other foreign languages in Hungary 47
3.5 National minorities in Czechoslovakia after the First World War 59
3.6 The composition of the population of Hungary by
nationality in 1949 62
3.7 The population of Czechoslovakia by nationality in 1950 65
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