Dr Bernhard Forchtner
Bernhard Forchtner worked in Linguistics and English Language until April 2012.
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Research Assistant
Degree: MA (Berlin), PhD (Lancaster)
Associated research centres and groups: Language, Ideology and Power Group (LIP), University Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language (UCREL)
Current Teaching
LING232 - Understanding Media
LING440 - Critical Discourse Analysis
FASS517 - Discourse Analysis
Research Interests
I have been working as a research assistant on the DYLAN project (EU funded integrated project, 6th framework,on European Language Policies and their national, regional, and local implementation, under the investigators Ruth Wodak and Michal Krzyzanowski). I am also working as a part-time teacher in the Department of Linguistics and English Language.
My PhD research is on the (mis)use of public apologies concerning the Holocaust in Austria, Denmark and Germany via the conceptualisation of the rhetoric of judge-penitence. That is, the exclusion of others as morally inferior as they have, apparently, not learnt the lessons from the past. Here, I follow Albert Camus' 'insight' in The Fall that "the more I accuse myself, the more I have the right to judge" others.
My academic interest lies in social theory, social memory studies and their combination with critical discourse analysis, in particular Ruth Wodak's discourse-historical approach (DHA). Recently, I have written several papers on the impact of the Frankfurt School/ Juergen Habermas' language-philosophy on the DHA and argumentation theory (pragma-dialectics) - with a particular focus on the epistemological dimension.
Journal articles
Forchtner, B. & Tominc, A. (under review): Critique in the discourse-historical approach - between Critical Rationalist Pragma-Dialectics and the Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas.
Forchtner, B. and Kølvraa, C. (forthcoming, 2012): The desire for unity in Austrian and Danish Postwar-film: the case of 'Der Bockerer' (1981) and 'Matador' (1978), in: Zeitgeschichte.
Wodak, R., Krzyzanowski, M. and Forchtner, B. (forthcoming, 2012): The interplay of language ideologies and contextual cues in multilingual interactions: Language choice and code-switching in European Union organizations, in: Language in Society, 41(2).
Forchtner, B. (2011): Critique, the discourse-historical approach and the Frankfurt School, in: Critical Discourse Studies. 8:1. 1-14.
Forchtner, B. (2010): Jürgen Habermas and the critical study of language, in: CADAAD - Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines. 4:1. 18-37.
Book chapters, edited volumes & book reviews
Forchtner, B. (forthcoming, 2013): Critical Discourse Analysis, in: Chapelle, Carol A. (Ed). The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Forchtner, B. (forthcoming, 2012): Nazi-collaboration, acknowledgements of wrongdoing and the legitimation of the Iraq war in Denmark: a judge penitent perspective, in: Cap, Piotr and Okulska, Urszula (Eds). Analyzing Genres in Political Communication: Theory and Practice. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Forchtner, B. (forthcoming, 2011): Buch-Review: Metaphor, Nation and the Holocaust, by Andreas Musolff, in: Journal of Language and Politics. 10(4).
Forchtner, B. (2011): Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, by Patrick Baert and Filipe Carreira da Silva, in: Sociological Research Online. Volume 16(2).
Forchtner, B. (2011): Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, by Patrick Baert and Filipe Carreira da Silva, in: Sociological Research Online. Volume 16(2).
Forchtner, B. (2011): Probing the shady side of forgiveness - the 'judge-penitent discourse' as a conceptualisation of the misuse of public confessions of guilt, in: Geoffrey, Karabin and Wigura, Karolina (Eds). Forgiveness: Promise, Possibility and Failure. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press. ISBN: 978-1-84888-055-9. pp. 47-58.
Disney, S., Forchtner, B., Ibrahim, W., Millar, N. (Eds). (2009). Papers from the Lancaster University Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics and Language Teaching. Volume 3: Papers from LAEL PG 2008. Lancaster: Lancaster University. ISSN 1756-123X.
Presentations
Forchtner, B., The discursive construction of 'post-national Europe' via the (mis)uses of historia magistra vitae and rhetorics of judge-penitence. 6th European Consortium for Political Science. Iceland. 25-27. August 2011.
Forchtner, B., Zur Bedeutung des Habermas'schen Universalisierungsprinzips für das Konzept der ‚Argumentation' im Diskurs-Historischen Ansatz. Diskursanalyse und Kritik. Germany. 17 to 19. Februar 2011.
Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A., Is the Pragma-Dialectical theory of argumentation an obstacle for a coherent notion of emancipatory critique in the Discourse-Historical Approach?. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines (CADAAD) 2010. Lodz, Poland. 13 to 15 September.
Forchtner, B., Multilingual practices in the European Commission: power in meetings. Sociolinguistik Symposium. Southampton, UK. 1 to 4 September 2010.
Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A. Rationality in Pragma-Dialectics: Critical Rationalism or the communication a priori?. 7th Conference on Argumentation of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation (ISSA). Amsterdam, Netherlands. 29 June to 02 July 2010.
Forchtner, B. How Albert Camus met Anders Fogh Rasmussen, or: how confessions of wrongdoing legitimise the claim for moral superiority in post-1989 Denmark and beyond. Workshop: Post-War Memory of the Holocaust in Europe. Copenhagen, Denmark, 26 to 27 May 2010.
Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A. Argumentation theory in the discourse-historical approach: between critical rationalism and Habermas' language-philosophy. Argumentation Workshop. Lancaster University, UK. 27 January 2010.
Forchtner, B. Multilingual practices in EU institutions. DYLAN Postgraduate Forum. Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland. 18 November 2009.
Wodak, R., Krzyzanowski, M. and Forchtner, B. Language dynamics, management of diversity, and hegemonial multilingualism in EU institutions. L.I.P. (Language, Ideology and Power) Research Group. Lancaster University, UK. 16 November 2009.
Forchtner, B. Claiming the moral highground via misuses of public acknowledgments of wrong-doing: judge-penitence in Denmark and Germany. New Perspectives in Memory Studies. Rethinking Movement, Representation and Materiality. Vienna, Austria. 12 to 13 October 2009.
Forchtner, B. Nazi-collaboration, confessions of wrong-doing and the legitimation of the Iraq war in Denmark: a judge-penitent perspective. 2nd International Conference on Political Linguistics. Lodz, Poland. 17 to 19 September 2009.
Forchtner, B. Critique, Critical Discourse Analysis and the Frankfurt School. L.I.P. (Language, Ideology and Power) Research Group. Lancaster University, UK. 8 June 2009.
Forchtner, B. Albert Camus meets Jürgen Habermas: Europe between judge-penitence and moral-practical learning. UACES Study Group: Values and the European Union - 'What Binds Europeans Together?'. Glasgow, UK. 24 to 25 April 2009.
Forchtner, B. Confessions of guilt as moral-practical learning or claims to power - the case of the judge-penitent. British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2009. Cardiff, UK. 15 to 17 April 2009.
Forchtner, B. Probing the shady side of forgiveness - the 'judge-penitent discourse' as a conceptualisation of the misuse of confessions of guilt. 2nd Global Conference: Forgiveness - Probing the Boundaries. Salzburg, Austria. 13 to 16 March 2009.
Forchtner, B. Confessions of guilt and the claim for moral superiority - the case of the judge-penitent. Dynamics of Memories. Lancaster University, UK. 28 to 29 November 2008.
Forchtner, B. Performing the 'judge-penitent' - emergence and regression of the German perpetrator trauma. Cultural Memory: Forgetting to Remember/ Remembering to Forget. University of Kent, UK. 10 to 13 September 2008.
Forchtner, B. Jürgen Habermas' language-philosophy and the critical study of language. LAEL Postgraduate Conference 2008. Lancaster University, UK. 3 July 2008.
Forchtner, B. Cultural trauma theory and the psychoanalytical legacy. Lancaster Sociology Summer Conference 2008. Lancaster University, UK. 1 to 2 July 2008.
Forchtner, B. In the house of the hangman one should not speak of the noose'. Re-visiting Germany's way of 'learning the lessons' from the Holocaust. L.I.P. (Language, Ideology and Power) Research Group. Lancaster University, UK. 25 February 2008.
Associated Keywords: Argumentation theory, Critical discourse analysis, Frankfurt School, Holocaust, Identity, Identity politics, Juergen Habermas, Memory
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