Piotr Chruszczewski and Jacek Fisiak's edited volume is the twenty-fourth publication of the Polish series “Język a komunikacja” (‘Language and communication’). This collection comprises seventeen essays from wide-ranging disciplines such as linguistics, political science, literature, and Polish-American relations.
The volume is divided into four main sections. Section 1, “Faces of language,” focuses on discourse. Mariusz Bieniek discusses the value of action-implicative discourse analysis to examine American political speech. Piotr Cap analyzes rhetorical legitimization of the US invasion of Iraq, and Ibrahim El-Hussari provides a critical discourse analysis of President George W. Bush's speeches. Other essays include a historical account of American English dialects (Ronald Kim), an analysis of basketball broadcasting discourse (Dawid Ksiezarcyk), a corpus analysis of differences between Polish and American slang (Maciej Widawski), and proximization patterns for legitimization in American speech (Anna Wieczorek).
The second section, “Faces of culture,” includes five essays pertinent to American culture. Noam Chomsky offers a metaphor for examining American policy in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Chruszczewski evaluates the American speech community, and Jan Chovanec analyzes the portrayal of British au-pair Louise Woodward in the American media. Camelia Cmeciu discusses the concept of time in American poetry, and Marcin Odelski paints a vivid picture of the culture and identity of indigenous Seneca-Cayuga in Oklahoma.
In Section 3, “Faces of literature,” three authors focus on American literature. Monika Gorska describes Vladimir Nabokov's writing experiences in America as a Russian émigré and traces his historical and literary influences. Janusz Semrau discusses the disconnect between protagonists in American literature and societal contexts. In the third essay, Piotr Zazula sheds light on parallels between Native American and modern American poetry.
The last section of the book, “Faces of politics,” addresses American and Polish relations during the Cold War. Aleksandra Knapik uses discourse analysis to evaluate how the US was represented in Polish newspapers at the start of the Cold War, and Jakub Tyszkiewicz's essay traces the American presidents’ policies towards Poland between 1956 and 1970. Overall, Chruszczewski and Fisiak have produced a volume that covers interesting and current topics relevant to the field. History, language, and culture are seamlessly woven into each chapter, making this edition an excellent complement to scholarly work in American and Polish Studies.
