Suchergebnisse

Epistolary writing consists of contemporary testimonies of political and cultural events and linguistic usages and it is vital to have access to good editions. There are two main groups of epistolary writing: informal and official letters. This article focuses on the characteristics of an official letter from the late 17th century. There are three basic prerequisites for any kind of written communication: Purpose, Style and Distinctive character. The main purpose is to transmit a message that will be read by several people who might be unknown to the sender and the letter is often filed in archives. The style of an official letter is often very elaborate and even if the purpose and style are basic when analyzing texts every written message has its own distinctive character that could be seen as stylistic but not always so like in the case of diplomatic letters where some parts of the text can be codified. All these characteristics are dealt with in this article, which is based on letters that the Spanish ambassador to Sweden in 1671 wrote to the Dowager Queen of Spain.

Politically correct terminology often fails to describe actual reality. Switzerland is commonly held up as an example of accomplished multiculturalism and multilingualism. Although appealing, this image is also fairly erroneous as the German majority and French "dominant" minority seem to live separate lives. Likewise, Italian and Rhaeto-Romance are generally marginalized and rarely either spoken or understood by the French- and German-speaking Swiss - creating the so-called "2 and ½-lingualism".This article does not pretend either to "prove" or "reject" Switzerland as a good example to follow. The domestic intricacies of each and every country demand home-grown solutions, and those solutions may or may not incorporate outside experience and practice. The intention is to discuss the difference between political will (and prejudice) and pragmatic arrangements in an attempt to identify what promotes multilingualism (and multiculturalism) in some places and what leads to coexisting languages and cultures that follow separate and parallel paths in others. The central hypothesis is that while a country may be multilingual politically, having embedded this intention in law and having organized the local community according to these laws in order to facilitate the usage and utility of the different cultures and linguistic varieties, this political arrangement may have little reflection in more complicated practice, with linguistic and cultural populations choosing to follow parallel and separate paths instead. The central issue is whether intercultural communication actually does exist, to what extent it exists, and what promotes it in a world that is turning its back on other national cultures and languages.

Ingmar Söhrman är romanist, språk- och kulturvetare, doktorand i spanska vid Uppsala Universitet och sedan 1989 lektor i svenska vid Universitetet i Alcalá de Henares i Spanien. Han är bl a författare till Sverige och de romanska kulturerna (1989).

-

Introduction / Mats Andrén & Ingmar Söhrman -- Part I. The challenges of religious borders -- Territorial and religious identifications in Europe / Linda Berg -- Europe with or without Muslims : creating and maintaining cultural boundaries / Göran Larsson & Riem Spielhaus -- Ilm al-Hududuyya : un-inheriting Eurocentricity / Klas Grinell -- Part II. Linguistic borders in practice -- When the intercultural goes national : text books as sites of struggle / Katharina Vajta -- The pluricentric borders of Bavaria / Barbara Loester -- The influence of imagined linguistic performances / Ingmar Söhrman -- Part III. Mental spaces and barriers -- Mental barriers replacing nation state borders / Fernand Fehlen -- Crossing borders and redefining oneself : the treacherous life of Aino Kallas / Katarina Leppänen -- Evolving symbolic divides : in Basque language promotion logos / Johan Järlehed -- Part IV. Scholars making borders -- The controversial concept of European identity / Mats Andrén -- The EU as a "large-space"? : Carl Schmitt and the contemporary dilemmas of political rituals and cultural borders / Jon Wittrock -- How prehistory becomes crucial for border making / Per Cornell -- Conclusion / Thomas Lindkvist & Katharina Vajta.

Includes the following reviews:
p. 238. Alvar Ellegård. Svartvik, J., Engleska - öspråk, världsspråk, trendspråk.
p. 239. Sabina Kielow. Ryan, M., Literary Theory. + Widdowson, P., Literature. The New Critical Idiom.
p. 239-243. Arne Olofsson. Olsson, H., Språket - så fungerar det. Lärobok i allmän grammatik och lingvistik.
p. 243-244. Ronald Paul. Ellegård, A., Jesus, One Hundred Years Before Christ: A Study in Creative Mythology.
p. 244-245. Ted Tapper. Löfgre, H. & Shima, A. (eds), After Consensus: Critical Challende and Social Change in America.
p. 245-246. Magnus Ankarsjö. Mahood, M.M., Playing Bit Parts in Shakespeare.
p. 246-247. Monica Armini. Mikalachki, J., The Legacy of Boadicea: Gender and Nation in Early Modern England.
p. 247-249. Esbjörn Nyström. Packalén, S., Im Spiegel der Literatur. Den tyskspråkiga litteraturen under tolv hundra år.
p. 249-251. Christine Pankow/Ingmar Söhrman. Nordstedts bildordbok. Svenska, Engelska, Tyska, Franska.
p. 251-253. Gösta Björn. Kirsch, F. -M., Stille aber ist Mangelware. Deutschland und die Deutschen in schwedischen Schulbüchern für das Fach Deutsch 1970-1995.
p. 253-254. Frank-Michael Kirsch. Müller Waldeck, G. & Ulrich, R. (Hrsg.), Hans Fallada: Sein Leben in Bildern und Briefen.
p. 254-255. Ingmar Söhrman. Nordstedts spanska ordbok. Spansk - svensk, svensk - spansk.