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Charlotta Seiler BryllaProfessor of German

About me

 

I am professor of German at the Department of Slavic and Baltic Studies, Finnish, Dutch and German at Stockholm University where I have worked since 2009. 2006-2009 I was a Postdoc at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.  I received my PhD in German at Stockholm University in 2003 for a study of The Swedish reception of central concepts (key words) in Early German Romanticism. Since, I have done research on the totalitarian language in NS-Germany and DDR, but also on the concept of Bildung, green parties’ political communication, right-wing populist discourse, the function of storytelling in a political context and on Swedish-German relations. A current project in collaboration with Gustav Westberg and Henning Årman concerns the semiotics of antisemitism and youth's experience of antisemitism in contemporary Sweden. 

Recent publications:

Together with Veronika Koller et al: Voices of Supporters. Populist parties, social media and the 2019 European elections. John Benjamins 2023.

Together with Hanna Acke et al (eds.): Religious and National Discourses. Contradictory Belonging, Minorites, Marginality and Centrality. De Gruyter 2023.

"Alla ska med i det gröna folkhemmet". En politolingvistisk analys av Miljlöpartiets valkampanj 2022, In Sakprosa, vol, 15, nr 3 2023.

"Östtysken - för evigt kusinen från landet?" In Svenska Dagbladet 8/6 2023.

 

Research

In my research, I focus on the connection between language and society, politics and power by investigating historical, social and political phenomenon through linguistic concept-/text- and discourse analyses. My research mainly consists of studies on political and totalitarian language use based on discourse linguistic theories and methods, so called political discourse analysis. Swedish-German relations with a focus on both German dictatorships is an additional research interest, which connects to the question formulations mentioned above. I have also studied different key words and their functions in the current societal debate concerning e.g. north/northern, peace, Bildung, opinion corridor.

Ongoing research projects

Antisemitic manifestations - the semiotics of antisemitism in Sweden and experiences among Jewish youth

Antisemitism is a recurring phenomenon in contemporary Sweden that manifests itself in a wide range of social contexts (e.g., Bachner, 2017; BRÅ, 2019). Reports show the persistence of antisemitism in the everyday lives of Jewish youth (e.g., Katzin, 2021, Wagrell, 2022). The aim of the current research project is to investigate the semiotics of antisemitism and youth’s experiences of antisemitism in contemporary Sweden.

Theoretical and methodological insights from a Discourse-Historical Approach, Social Semiotics and New Sociology of Childhood are used to explore how antisemitism is semiotically practiced and experienced in various societal arenas. The project consists of three work packages (WP). WP A (2023–2024) will focus on the increased presence of radical nationalist propaganda in the public political space in Sweden. WP B (2024–2025) will explore radical nationalist propaganda in school contexts. WP C (2025–2027) will recruit Jewish youths as co-researchers to capture their perspectives on the antisemitic manifestations they encounter in their everyday lives. Combining discourse analytical methods and ethnography, the project will engage with the complexity and nuances of contextualized antisemitic semiotics. By maintaining dialog and collaboration with stakeholders, the project will provide much-needed knowledge about how antisemitism is semiotically manifested and how such manifestations are experienced by minority youth.

PI: Gustav Westberg, Örebro University
Co-researcher: Henning Årman, Stockholm University

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Nomen est omen

    2017. Charlotta Seiler Brylla. Historisk Tidskrift (S) 137 (2), 228-259

    Article

    Nomen est omen: State names for divided Germany

    The Cold War brought a competition of political systems between East and West. This battle was also waged on a discursive level. In this article the ”German question” is investigated from a linguistic perspective by analysing the names used for both German states in political documents, and in press, informational and educational materials. By using di erent names such as the German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR), East Germany, the Zone, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG/BRD), West Germany and the Bonn Republic, the states were able to position themselves and simultaneously call into question the legitimacy of the ”other” Germany. The names chosen were deliberate speech acts and part of the antagonism that characterized German-German relations until uni cation in 1990. A diachronic study of how the state names were used in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic therefore illustrates the relations between the states.

    The uses of German state names by other nations were also perceived as political statements. Neutral Sweden was caught in the middle of a German- German power struggle. Although the Federal Republic of Germany was certainly the more important partner, with a stronger in uence during the period as a whole, the GDR nevertheless served as a role model in several areas. The article sheds light on Sweden’s view of divided Germany dur- ing the Cold War by examining how both German states were portrayed linguistically in Swedish public discourse between 1949 and 1989.

    The analysis shows that the German-German context involved regular wars of words, where the use of a name could prompt both domestic and foreign policy con icts. The names of East or West Germany had political signi cance and were also explicitly agreed on in di erent contexts. The Swedish materials show a more pragmatic approach. Names were increas- ingly chosen to suit the context of communication and consideration of the German-German name preferences seemingly played a subordinate role. However, the study demonstrates that name practices changed in accordance with the political debates caused by the German question. The attempt to portray the two German states as equal regardless of context, which started in the late 1960s, is remarkable.

    The use of state names in the respective public discourse of the states re ects the balance of power and interaction of the Cold War. The study illustrates clear di erences in how the two German states were portrayed linguistically in the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR and in Sweden. But in spite of di erences, the same image was evoked – West Germany was portrayed as the ”real”, prototypical Germany, whereas the GDR assumed more of a divergent status.

    Read more about Nomen est omen

  • Kritiska text- och diskursstudier

    2018. Charlotta Seiler Brylla, Gustav Westberg, Daniel Wojahn.

    Book (ed)

    Hur kan kritik förstås i ett språkvetenskapligt sammanhang? Vad innebär det att inta en kritisk forskarposition som språkvetare? Vad kan man som text- och diskursanalytiker rikta sin kritik mot?

    Denna antologi tar ett samlat och bredare grepp om konceptet kritik inom språkvetenskaplig text- och diskursanalys med ett särskilt fokus på en svenskspråkig kontext. Boken innehåller såväl teoretiska diskussioner av kritikbegreppet som kritiska empiriska analyser. De teoretiska diskussionerna tar sig an kritikbegreppets innebörd, dess historia och vetenskapliga implikationer. Här bidrar bokens artiklar också med teoretiska utvecklingar av kritikbegreppet i relation till exempelvis genre, motdiskurser, tystnad och frånvaro. I de empiriska bidragen analyseras sociala och samhällsrelevanta fenomen såsom feminism, nyliberalism, rasism och propaganda utifrån kritiska perspektiv. De empiriska analyserna bygger på vitt skilda skriftspråkliga såväl som multimodala material. Bland annat presenteras kritiska analyser av nationella prov för gymnasiet, reklam för banker, IKEA-kataloger, vårdprogram för ätstörningar och synen på samiska barns språkundervisning. Boken ger en samlad bild av aktuell kritisk text- och diskursanalytisk forskning och avser även att bidra till den teoretiska utvecklingen av fältet.

    Read more about Kritiska text- och diskursstudier

  • Strategic Naming A Linguistic Approach to the German State Names During the Cold War

    2019. Charlotta Seiler Brylla. LiLi 49 (2), 279-301

    Article

    The Cold War brought the East and West into competition between systems, and this battle was also waged on adiscursive level. By using different names the states were able to position themselves and simultaneously call into question the legitimacy of the >> other << Germany. This paper takes on the >> German question << from alinguistic perspective by analysing different names for both German states in public discourses. The paper also sheds light on Sweden's view of divided Germany by examining how both German states were portrayed linguistically in Sweden between 1949 and 1989. The German-German context involved regular wars of words, where the use of aname could prompt both domestic and foreign policy conflicts while the Swedish materials show amore pragmatic approach: names were increasingly chosen to suit the context of communication. However, the attempt to portray the two German States as equal regardless of genre starting in the late 1960s is remarkable.

    Read more about Strategic Naming A Linguistic Approach to the German State Names During the Cold War

  • Darstellungen des geteilten Deutschlands in schwedischen Lehrbüchern der 1970er und 1980er Jahre

    2019. Charlotta Seiler Brylla. Konflikt und Kooperation, 99-113

    Chapter

    Die Gründung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD) und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (DDR) im Jahr 1949 führte zu einer Konkurrenzsituation, welche sowohl die Darstellungen als auch die Wahrnehmungen beider Staaten in Schweden maßgeblich bestimmen sollten. Das neutrale Schweden versuchte außenpolitisch und diplomatisch zwischen den beiden deutschen Staaten zu navigieren, wobei engere Beziehungen eindeutig zur Bundesrepublik geknüpft wurden, was nicht nur an der wesentlich später erfolgten diplomatischen Anerkennung der DDR durch Schweden abzulesen ist.1 Dennoch zeugen zahlreiche Forschungsarbeiten davon, wie sich die DDR-Auslandsinformation um Schweden bemühte und wie die DDR zumindest in gewissen Kreisen als das attraktivere Deutschland zu gelten schien.2 In meiner Forschung interessiere ich mich besonders dafür, wie die DDR im öffentlichen Diskurs Schwedens dargestellt wurde. Zu diesem Zweck wurden bisher vor allem Printmedien, Informations- und Reiseliteratur sowie Parteidokumente auf die Frage hin untersucht, wie und mit welchen sprachlich-rhetorischen Mitteln die DDR in Schweden konzeptualisiert wurde.3 ← 99 | 100 → Im vorliegenden Artikel soll ein weiteres – wie ich meine stark diskursprägendes – Medium dieses Bild ergänzen, indem eine Lehrbuchanalyse vorgenommen wird. Da die Darstellungen der DDR immer im Kontext der Existenz zweier deutscher Staaten zu betrachten sind, wird die Analyse auch die BRD miteinbeziehen.

    Read more about Darstellungen des geteilten Deutschlands in schwedischen Lehrbüchern der 1970er und 1980er Jahre

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