Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities
Editors
This volume sets out to foreground the issues of youth identity in the context of current sociolinguistic and discourse research on identity construction. Based on detailed empirical analyses, the twelve chapters offer examinations of how youth identities from late childhood up to early twenties are locally constructed in text and talk. The settings and types of social organization investigated range from private letters to graffiti, from peer group talk to video clips, from schoolyard to prison. Comparably, a wide range of languages is brought into focus, including Danish, German, Greek, Japanese, and Turkish. Drawing on various discourse analytic paradigms (e.g. Critical Discourse Analysis, Conversation Analysis), the contributions examine and question notions with currency in the field, such as young people's linguistic creativity and resistance to mainstream norms. At the same time, they demonstrate the embeddedness of constructions of youth identities in local activities and communities of practice where they interact with other social identities and factors, in particular gender and ethnicity.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 110] 2003. viii, 343 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Discourse constructions of youth identities: IntroductionJannis K. Androutsopoulos and Alexandra Georgakopoulou | pp. 1–25
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I. Peer group identities
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Linguistic variation and the construction of social identity in a German-Turkish setting: A case study of an immigrant youth group in Mannheim, GermanyWerner Kallmeyer and Inken Keim | pp. 29–46
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Nicknames and teasing: A case study of a linguistically and culturally mixed peer-groupVally Lytra | pp. 47–73
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Looking back when looking ahead: On adolescents’ identity management in narrative practicesAlexandra Georgakopoulou | pp. 75–91
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It’s not that I really care about him personally you know: The construction of gender identity in London teenage talkAnna-Brita Stenström | pp. 93–117
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II. Recasting literacy practices
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Emotion and youth identities in personal letter writing: An analysis of pictorial signs and unconventional punctuationKuniyoshi Kataoka | pp. 121–149
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Spelling rebellionMark Sebba | pp. 151–172
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‘Nike Trainers, My One True Love — Without You I am Nothing’: Youth, identity and the language of trainers for young men in prisonAnita Wilson | pp. 173–196
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Constructions of identity in German hip-hop cultureJan Berns and Peter Schlobinski | pp. 197–219
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III. Representations and positionings
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Socio-cultural orientation, urban youth styles and the spontaneous acquisition of Turkish by non-Turkish adolescents in GermanyPeter Auer and İnci Dirim | pp. 223–246
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Swedish youth discourse: On performing relevant selves in interactionCatrin Norrby and Karolina Wirdenäs | pp. 247–278
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The youth and the gatekeepers: Reproduction and change in language norm and variationTore Kristiansen | pp. 279–302
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Mediated experience and youth identities in a post-traditional orderLilie Chouliaraki | pp. 303–331
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Index | pp. 333–338
“
Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities is an important contribution not only to our understanding of 'youth' as a social category, but also to current explorations of discursive constructions of social categories in general. The papers are full of rich ethnographic detail and fine-grained analyses of language practices across a wide range of sites and forms of discursive production, set within a theoretical framework linking conversation analysis, discourse analysis and ethnography.”
Monica Heller, University of Toronto, Canada
“This volume is a needed and highly qualified international presentation of the studies, of youth language in (post-)modern societies. An excellent group of scholars offer a range of insights into some of the most intriguing questions of social uses of language by contemporary youth. The adolescents in particular offer very useful data, which illustrate how, through language use, variation and creativity, they (re)construct their social and cultural world. This opens up opportunities for documenting the continuously and rapidly changing social conditions of finding,
establishing, or negotiating roles, places, and identities in the global village. This long-awaited and forceful publication will be a welcome contribution to our understanding of the role of language in social life.”
establishing, or negotiating roles, places, and identities in the global village. This long-awaited and forceful publication will be a welcome contribution to our understanding of the role of language in social life.”
Jens Norman Jørgenson, University of Copenhagen
“It serves as a valuable reader both for scholars of language and identity and for those interested in youth culture.”
Liwei Gao, Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language Center, USA, in Language Vol. 82:1 (2006)
“I recommend this book to researchers who appreciate good ethnography, collecting rich data from multilingual, multicultural and multi-ethnic settings coupled with detailed analysis on the micro-level combined with macro-level interpretation.”
Aleksandra Galasinska, University of Wolverhampton, UK, in Multilingua Vol. 23 (2004)
“This is an excellent book. It is certainly one of the best contributions to the wider adolescence literature from scholars of language and communication. [...] probably the greatest contribution made by this volume is its sophisticated handling of identity throughout.”
Crispin Thurlow
“Die Beiträge in 'Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities' leisten insofern einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung in der Jugend(sprach)forschung, weil sie eindrucksvoll die Konstruktion von ganz verschiedenen Identitäten zeigen. [...] Besonders positiv hervorzuheben ist auch die internationale Reichweite der Beiträge, weil dadurch Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede der Identitätskonstruktion über die Ländergrenzen hinweg herausgestellt werden können. [...] Man kann insgesamt sagen, dass es den Herausgebern mit dieser Auswahl methodisch, analytisch, thematisch und situativ sehr verschiedener Beiträge gelungen ist, einen umfassenden Überblick über 'Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities' zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts zu geben.”
Janet Spreckels, in Gesprächsforschung 5 (2004), Seite 14
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General