Dennis Scheller-Boltz – författare

Conchita Wursts 2014 victory in the Eurovision Song Contest was a significant discursive moment which revealed the current tensions between postgenderism and traditionalism in contemporary Russia. This case also made clear just how far gender and sexuality are instrumentalised and politicised not least in creating Russians self-perception and constructing a Russian national identity and how massively notions of identity impact on Russian everyday life. The monograph focuses on the discussion of gender and sexuality in Russia following the 2014 event and investigates the relation between discourse and identity. Above all, it is concerned with the function of language in identity construction, and in the creation and demarcation of spaces. In this context, Dr. Scheller-Boltzs study not only analyses lexicological and word-formation peculiarities, but also provides some revealing research findings about specific language use, including certain argumentation strategies. The monograph begins with a detailed introduction to notions of identity and concludes with some critical remarks on Russian gender and queer linguistics.

What is identity and how do we construct identity? Why do we have to deconstruct identities again? And what is the role that language policy measures and anti-discriminatory actions play in this process? This volume deals with the topic of identity formation in the Slavic region. It opens with an extensive general introduction to the topic of identity. In its core part, measures meant to enable politically correct speech and anti-discriminatory language are presented for different Slavic languages and cultural spheres. Political correctness, antidiscrimination, and antisexism play an important role in the Slavic region when it comes to influencing language and the use of language. Three additional papers concern Ukrainian-Russian mixed speech and textology of literary works in Russian.