Constructions of European Identity, Crisis Stereotypes and the Discursive Embedding of the Subject in Textbook Assignments

Abstract

This chapter explores how learners are addressed as European subjects in textbook assignments in current German textbooks. The authors use a multimodal analysis inspired by discourse theory to examine the discursive semantics and communication techniques by which learners are addressed in relation to ‘Europe’ in these interactive sections. The analysis takes as its point of departure and frame of reference the observation that Europe is constructed according to a different semantic modality when compared to group-based identities with ‘nation’ as their prototypical example. Thus, the hypothesis of this research is that Europe, unlike the categorical form of the nation—the latter being primarily defined in terms of the dichotomy of belonging or not belonging—instead takes the form of a non-categorical semantics, beyond the ‘them and us’ binary. Such semantics go hand in hand with flexible concepts of identification and forms of subjectivation and knowledge generation that are based on interactive and dialogical practices of the individual self through its interpellation in textbook assignments. This performative contingency of the construction of Europe corresponds to an insisting crisis discourse and eventually manifests in significant crisis stereotypes of Europe.