The book is a pioneering investigation of the lingering linguistic memories of the totalitarian past in contemporary post-Communist discourses. Contributions related to Eastern Europe, Russia and China provide a multi-faceted lens to view linguistic processes across societies with various Communist and post-Communist experiences.
Lara Ryazanova-Clarke, The University of Edinburgh This wide-ranging collection of perceptive and thought-provoking studies of change ... Read morefrom communism, and within communist systems, demonstrates why revolutions rarely permit a clean break with the past. Language continues, carrying patterns of thought across historic events, even when a new regime tries to alter a nation’s thinking by changing the permitted modes of expression. This is a dimension of political life that political scientists and practitioners alike need to assimilate. These essays make a valuable contribution to that endeavor.
Ronald J. Hill, Trinity College, Dublin This collection of essays offers a geographically diverse account of the legacy of totalitarian language in many former communist countries, with a chapter on post-totalitarian yet still communist China.
Slavic Studies
The volume looks at examples of contemporary political and media discourse in a number of Eastern European countries, as well as Russia and China. The topics range from the language of sociological scholarship in Czechoslovakia, to the language of the media and electoral campaigns in Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova, to the intertwining linguistic and cultural legacies of the Soviet era, the interwar republic and the diaspora in Latvia....informative volume.
Slavic and East European Review, 90
Show Less