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Discourse Studies
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Implicit and explicit identity constructions in the life story of one of Hitler's elite soldiers

Dorien van de Mieroop

Lessiu Shogeschool , Aantwerp, dorien.vandemieroop{at}lessius.eu

Kris Bruyninckx

Lessiu Shogeschool, Antwerp, bruyninckxkris{at}hotmail.com

Kathy Leysen

Lessiu Shogeschool, Antwerp, kathyleysen{at}hotmail.com

Wendy Vanwesenbeeck

Lessiu Shogeschool, Antwerp, wendyvanwesenbeeck{at}hotmail.com

We study the life story of a former SS Leibstandarte soldier and we focus on the way the narrator deals with face threats by negotiating his identity constructions. The interviewee positions himself as a sportsman and an ignorant soldier, thus constructing denial of knowledge of and agreement with Hitler's ideology. These identities can be considered to be complementary, but they are built in quite different ways: the narrator explicitly presents himself as a sportsman, but mitigates his implicit construction of ignorance. Given the social and historical context, this contrast in degree of explicitness is expected since the ignorance claim has been the subject of many previous discourses and debates of this subject.

Key Words: context • discourse analysis • identity construction • interview • life story

Discourse Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, 365-385 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1461445607076205
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