J.E. Joseph, Language and Identity: National, Ethnic, Religious

Abstract

For the reader requiring an introduction to the broad, cross-disciplinary field of language and identity, this book is an excellent place to start. The book opens with a discussion of the components of the author's own identity, which immediately engages the reader. The book goes on to provide a broad evolutionary overview of identity theory, closing with an ethnographic study of two contemporary contexts where linguistic identities are political flashpoints, Hong Kong and Lebanon. Joseph's book stresses the importance of language in identity at individual, community and national level. Joseph argues that linguistics should be 'rehumanised' to include the study of how identity is constructed.