Kulturhistorische Blicke auf die Sprache des Dritten Reiches und die antisemitische Hassrede
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Arvi Sepp
Abstract
As of the year 1942, the German-Jewish professor of Romance languages, Victor Klemperer, undertook a thoroughgoing analysis of Nazi language, anti-Semitic hate speech and verbal aggression in his diaries. In his journal, he provides concrete and painstakingly precise notes of his reflections on fascist institutions, his gradual exclusion from society as a Jew, the circumstances of ordinary people under National Socialism, including laws, working conditions, and the media. The following essay will offer a new way of approaching Klemperer’s critique of language by drawing on Erving Goffman’s examination of the consequences of exclusion and discrimination from the perspective of his theory of stigma, as formulated in his study Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963), and on Judith Butler’s analysis of the role injurious speech plays in constituting the subject in her book Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (1997). Because the racial-biological categorization as a “Jew” functions as an illocutionary form of speech that, in the moment it is uttered, injures the subject and, through this very injuring of the subject, constitutes the subject, it performs the function of an address. This essay sets out to illustrate how the language Klemperer investigates in his diary can be understood as hate speech, arguing that the Nazis′ racial classification “Jew” creates a Jewish identity among those who, like Klemperer, had both converted and assimilated into German society. By studying both direct and indirect statements and the vocabulary used in them, the diarist continuously strives to discover his interlocutors′ attitudes towards the National Socialist typology of identity and therefore, by extension, towards him.
Abstract
As of the year 1942, the German-Jewish professor of Romance languages, Victor Klemperer, undertook a thoroughgoing analysis of Nazi language, anti-Semitic hate speech and verbal aggression in his diaries. In his journal, he provides concrete and painstakingly precise notes of his reflections on fascist institutions, his gradual exclusion from society as a Jew, the circumstances of ordinary people under National Socialism, including laws, working conditions, and the media. The following essay will offer a new way of approaching Klemperer’s critique of language by drawing on Erving Goffman’s examination of the consequences of exclusion and discrimination from the perspective of his theory of stigma, as formulated in his study Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963), and on Judith Butler’s analysis of the role injurious speech plays in constituting the subject in her book Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (1997). Because the racial-biological categorization as a “Jew” functions as an illocutionary form of speech that, in the moment it is uttered, injures the subject and, through this very injuring of the subject, constitutes the subject, it performs the function of an address. This essay sets out to illustrate how the language Klemperer investigates in his diary can be understood as hate speech, arguing that the Nazis′ racial classification “Jew” creates a Jewish identity among those who, like Klemperer, had both converted and assimilated into German society. By studying both direct and indirect statements and the vocabulary used in them, the diarist continuously strives to discover his interlocutors′ attitudes towards the National Socialist typology of identity and therefore, by extension, towards him.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt V
- Einleitung: Sprachliche Aggression beschreiben, verstehen und erklären 1
-
Teil I: Zum Ausdruck verbaler Aggression
- Was sind aggressive Sprechakte? 35
- On the strength of explicit and implicit verbal offences 51
- The offensiveness of animal metaphors 73
- Aggression in Banter 89
- Aggressiv oder supportiv? 123
- Offene und versteckte Aggression im Gebrauch von Dysphemismen und Euphemismen 145
-
Teil II: Verbale Aggression in Praxisfeldern
- Kommunikative Gewalt in der Psychotherapie 171
- Ist Fehlerkorrektur im Fremdsprachenunterricht ein aggressives Verhalten? 209
- „Von Ihrer Bewerbung können wir keinen Gebrauch machen“ 219
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Teil III: Hassrede und Ideologie
- Zur Multi-Akt-Semantik der Ethnophaulismen 245
- Kulturhistorische Blicke auf die Sprache des Dritten Reiches und die antisemitische Hassrede 269
- „Um den Schädling zu vernichten” 289
- Implizite Aggression in Onlinekommentaren anlässlich der Debatte um rassistische Sprache in Kinderbüchern 305
-
Teil IV: Inszenierungen verbaler Aggression
- „Doing aggressive 2.0“ 331
- The leader’s voice and communicative aggression in social media 357
- Politische Clowns in Klartext-Manier: Expressivität und Aggressivität in Zeiten transnationaler Öffentlichkeit 377
- Verbale Aggression in parlamentarischen Debatten 401
- Verbale Aggression im Realsozialismus und ihre Literarisierung 425
- Inszenierte Aggression in poetischer Sprache 447
- Autorinnen und Autoren 471
- Namen- und Sachregister 479
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Inhalt V
- Einleitung: Sprachliche Aggression beschreiben, verstehen und erklären 1
-
Teil I: Zum Ausdruck verbaler Aggression
- Was sind aggressive Sprechakte? 35
- On the strength of explicit and implicit verbal offences 51
- The offensiveness of animal metaphors 73
- Aggression in Banter 89
- Aggressiv oder supportiv? 123
- Offene und versteckte Aggression im Gebrauch von Dysphemismen und Euphemismen 145
-
Teil II: Verbale Aggression in Praxisfeldern
- Kommunikative Gewalt in der Psychotherapie 171
- Ist Fehlerkorrektur im Fremdsprachenunterricht ein aggressives Verhalten? 209
- „Von Ihrer Bewerbung können wir keinen Gebrauch machen“ 219
-
Teil III: Hassrede und Ideologie
- Zur Multi-Akt-Semantik der Ethnophaulismen 245
- Kulturhistorische Blicke auf die Sprache des Dritten Reiches und die antisemitische Hassrede 269
- „Um den Schädling zu vernichten” 289
- Implizite Aggression in Onlinekommentaren anlässlich der Debatte um rassistische Sprache in Kinderbüchern 305
-
Teil IV: Inszenierungen verbaler Aggression
- „Doing aggressive 2.0“ 331
- The leader’s voice and communicative aggression in social media 357
- Politische Clowns in Klartext-Manier: Expressivität und Aggressivität in Zeiten transnationaler Öffentlichkeit 377
- Verbale Aggression in parlamentarischen Debatten 401
- Verbale Aggression im Realsozialismus und ihre Literarisierung 425
- Inszenierte Aggression in poetischer Sprache 447
- Autorinnen und Autoren 471
- Namen- und Sachregister 479
