Books by Ruth Wodak

This new book in Critical Discourse Studies uses detailed and systematic analysis of the discursive construction of Austrian identities across a period of 20 years - from 1995 to 2015 - to trace the re-emergence of nationalism in the media, popular culture and politics, and the normalization of far-right nativist ideologies and attitudes. Contradictory and intertwined tendencies towards re-nationalization and trans-nationalization have always framed debates about European identities, but during the so-called refugee crisis of 2015, the debates became polarized. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nation states first reacted by closing borders, while symbols of banal nationalism proliferated. The data, drawn from a variety of empirical studies, suggests changes in memory politics - the way past events are remembered - are due to a range of factors, including the growth of migrant societies; the influence of financial and climate crises; changing gender politics; and a new transnational European politics of the past. The authors assess the challenges to liberal democracies and fundamental human and constitutional rights, and analyze how the pandemic contributes to a new re-nationalization across Europe and beyond. DOI:https://doi.org/10.47788/RLNW3226

The Politics of Fear traces the trajectory of far-right politics from the margins of the political landscape to its very center. It explores the social and historical mechanisms at play, and expertly ties these to the "micro-politics" of far-right language and discourse.

How do democratic and pluralistic societies cope with traumatic events in their past? This interdisciplinary volume analyzes in detail for the first time the history and image of the German 'Wehrmacht' and the debates in Austria and Germany surrounding two highly contested exhibitions about the war crimes of the 'Wehrmacht' during World War II.

The first book that draws together the main current methodological approaches to the study of language and gender. Approaches include Sociolinguistics, Conversation analysis, Corpus linguistics, Critical discourse analysis, Feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis, Discursive psychology and Queer theory.

How do we construct national identities in discourse? Which topics, which discursive strategies and which linguistic devices are employed to construct national sameness and uniqueness on the one hand, and differences to other national collectives on the other hand? The Discursive Construction of National Identity analyses discourses of national identity in Europe with particular attention to Austria.In the tradition of critical discourse analysis, the authors analyse current and on-going transformations in the self-and other definition of national identities using an innovative interdisciplinary approach which combines discourse-historical theory and methodology and political science perspectives. Thus, the rhetorical promotion of national identification and the discursive construction and reproduction of national difference on public, semi-public and semi-private levels within a nation state are analysed in much detail and illustrated with a huge amount of examples taken from many genres (speeches, focus-groups, interviews, media, and so forth). In addition to the critical discourse analysis of multiple genres accompanying various commemorative and celebratory events in 1995, this extended and revised edition is able to draw comparisons with similar events in 2005. The impact of socio-political changes in Austria and in the European Union is also made transparent in the attempts of constructing hegemonic national identities.