DIS//RUPTION THROUGH CODE-

SWITCHING

Aaron Carpenter

Germanics Department

Maja Haderlap

• Ethnic Slovene-Austrian

• Wrote previously in Slovenian

• Engel des Vergessens (2011)

• Angel of Oblivian

• Novel about the Slovene-

Austrian experience during

and after World War II

By Dontworry - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17998590

By Gugganij - Own workImage:Map at carinthia municipalities.png, CC BY-SA 3.0 at, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=591793

By Gugganij - Own workImage:Map at carinthia municipalities.png, CC BY-SA

3.0 at, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=591793

Carinthia

By NuclearVacuum - File:Location European nation states.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8105020

Slovene/German Conflict in Austria

• During WWII

– Suppression of the Slovene

language in public

– Deportation of Slovene-Austrian

citizens

Slovenian

Slovene/German Conflict in Austria

• After WWII

– Protection of minority rights not

respected

– Stigmatization of the Slovene

language in public

AUSFAHR

IZHOD

Code-Switching

• “[T]he use of several languages or dialects in the same

conversation or sentence by bilingual people” (Gardner-

Chloros 4).

• Oral code-switching → improvised

• Literary code-switching → intentional

Code-Switching

• “[T]he use of several languages or dialects in the same

conversation or sentence by bilingual people” (Gardner-

Chloros 4).

• Oral code-switching → improvised

• Literary code-switching → intentional

Literary Code-Switching

• “[Code-switching into a minority language is] used to

resist, challenge and transform power relations and

domination” (Jonsson, 254).

Disruption Through Code-SwitchingGerman

Unequal power relations

Literary techniques

Slovenian

Slovene experience

Characters’ emotions

Written Accounts

Accounts in Slovenian

• The grandmother’s journal

• Aunt Katrca’s poem

• The father’s poem

Oral society

WRITTEN

ORAL

Grandmother’s Journal

• Je bilo u tork opoldne 12 Oktober je locitev od hise in od

temalih Sinov Tonček in Zdravko. Toje bilo hudo zamene

ker jas nisem kriva nic. (Haderlap, Engel 276)

• It was midday on Tuesday, on the 12th of October, the

separation from my home and from my two little boys,

Tonček und Zdravko. That was hard for me because I’m

not guilty […]” (Haderlap, Angel 278).

Aphasia

Strange

Scary

Horrible

Terrible

Aphasia

Strange

Scary

Horrible

Terrible

Ich bin ein Mensch!

CENSORED

AUSFAHRT

IZHOD

Ich bin ein Mensch!

CENSORED

AUSFAHRT

IZHOD

Ich bin ein Mensch!

Hitlergruss

RE//APROPRIATION

Hitlergruss

RE//APROPRIATION

About me

• Name: Aaron Carpenter

• Department: Germanics

• Contact Info: aaronc84@uw.edu

• Twitter: @brynhild84

• LinkedIn Profile:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/techcommkungfu/