Discourse studies and the re/writing of History
In recent years, much research in Discourse Studies and Critical Discourse Studies has started to analyse the many dimensions of national and transnational “identity politics” and to investigate how the discursive construction of such identities draws on collective and individual memories, on hegemonic and common sense narratives, and on myths which are proposed as constitutive for national identification (see below:“Discourses of/about the past(s). Overview of research”). Indeed, one might claim that the entire field of “language and politics” in post-war Europe (particularly since the 1960’s and 1980’s) was triggered by the desire to understand the influence of persuasive rhetoric in and on totalitarian regimes and related major catastrophes in the 20th century, thus trying to come to terms with the traumatic pasts in Europe and beyond (Wodak, De Cillia, 2006, 2007). In this way, it is very timely to consider the range of research, th...
