Reviewed by Geneviève Bernard Barbeau, Université Laval

Following the 2004 First International Conference on Critical Discourse Analysis, held in Valencia, Analysing identities in discourse is a collection of seven articles selected from the conference. Each article focuses on a specific situation where a form of power abuse and domination plays a key role in the discursive construction of identity.

The volume is divided into four parts. Part 1, written by Héctor Grad and Luisa Martín Rojo, explores the concept of identity from different approaches, but relies mainly on a critical discourse analysis approach to study how identity is constructed in social interactions. The authors emphasize the link between identity and ideology and their influence on the domination of identities.

Part 2 contains three chapters. In ‘Imposing and resisting ethnic categorization in multicultural classrooms’(31–56), Luisa Martín Rojo investigates the ethnic categorization in multicultural schools in Madrid and how the traditional distinction between us (the Spanish) and them (the immigrants) leads to the creation of imposed and conquered identities. Yongbing Liu, in ‘The construction of patriotic discourse in Chinese basal readers’ (57–75), identifies discursive strategies, such as metaphor and overwording, used in children’s textbooks in China to create a national identity more focused on patriotism. Lastly, Nurit Peled-Elhanan in ‘The denial of Palestinian national and territorial identity in Israeli schoolbooks of history and geography 1996–2003’ (77–107), analyzes how Israeli schoolbooks represent the national and territorial Palestinian identity and how they contribute to maintain a racist discourse.

The first chapter of Part 3, ‘The discursive building of European identity: Diverse articulations of compatibility between European and national identities in Spain and the UK’ (111–30) by Héctor Grad, examines whether or not the construction of a European identity is compatible with the national identities in the United Kingdom and in Spain. In ‘9–11 Response(s): Three Arab-American groups respond discursively to the attacks of September 11, 2001’ (131–55), Lutfi M. Hussein analyzes three websites to show how Arab-Americans reacted to the attacks.

One of the two chapters in Part 4, ‘Sexual assault trials, discursive identities and institutional change’ (159–77) by Susan Ehrlich explains that the vocabulary used in court to talk about non-stranger rape is often softened and described almost as consensual. This contributes to the construction of an imposed identity. In the final chapter, ‘The representation of PLWHAs and the dangerous “other”’ (179–99), Mei Li Lean and Stella Meng Hui Lee focus on the role the media plays in the discourse representation of people living with HIV/AIDS and its effect on the construction of their identity.

All in all, this volume is an extremely interesting contribution to the field of identity studies. With a variety of subjects, it constitutes a valuable resource not only for linguists but also for scholars who are studying the role of domination, inequality, and propaganda on identity construction. However, since the critical discourse analysis is a complex approach, the volume is more suitable for specialists than beginners.