This book explores different dimensions of discourses on language as they manifest themselves in contemporary central Europe. The study pays specific attention to discursive representations of the German language in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Navigating a complex territory across the national and European contexts, as well as the public and semiprivate spheres, the authors carefully map the ways in which policies and personal narratives relate to particular language ideologies. Most importantly, this study provides a strong basis for the argument that the collective and individual dimensions of our realities cannot be studied in isolation, but need to be seen as mutually constituted. As the authors put it in their conclusions, “it is the interconnectedness of these dimensions that allows us to see the reciprocal relationship between language and social change” (202).

The book's introduction summarizes the main research questions to be pursued in the subsequent chapters. Ch. 2 offers a review of the theoretical approaches that inform the study, which the authors situate as a contribution to our understanding of “discourses on language as language ideologies” (14). This chapter also provides an overview of the materials gathered for this project, as well as the methods used to analyze them. Ch. 3 introduces the historical dimensions of the development of the language policy discourses analyzed later in the book, paying special attention to the shifting role of the German language “within the multilingual and multiethnic context” (43) of eastern central Europe after World War II.

Ch. 4 presents a more empirical investigation of the complexities outlined in the first part of the book. This chapter concentrates on language policy discourses, both at the European Union level and in the realm of the European nation states where German is spoken. The authors present a compelling argument for a holistic approach that links the specific policies of Hungary and the Czech Republic with the broader foreign cultural policy in Germany and Austria, as well as in the supranational context of the European Union. The analysis of the different official documents is geared towards exploring competing understandings of the forms and functions of language—and more specifically, multilingualism—and how these “create a discursive environment within which individual people can orientate themselves socially in terms of their understanding of how particular languages are preferred or dispreferred under particular social conditions.” (125). Chs. 5 and 6 explore the specifics of these dynamics as they emerge throughout speakers' personal narratives. The authors rely on a series of individual “language biographies” (8) narrated in different interviews in order to trace how, especially when recalling periods of social and political transformation, people make use of their (perceived) experiences with language as a way to, first of all, construct a sense of who they are, and second, negotiate the location of their personal identities vis-à-vis the identity of a group. In sum, this is a fascinating study that will be a useful resource for scholars working in/on the (new) European context across different disciplines such as (socio)linguistics, communication, or cultural studies.