UNE QUERELLE D’ALLEMAND. ‘GERMAN QUARREL’ AS AN ETHNIC STEREOTYPE IN GERMAN-LANGUAGE DISCOURSE

Abstract

The paper examines the ethnic stereotyping of Germans by the French with regard to expression ‘une querelle d’Allemand’ – ‘German quarrel’ – from the perspective of historical context and ethno-cultural interaction in modern conditions. The objective of the study is to describe this ethnostereotype in discursive practices and to try to compare it with a certain cultural script, a model of behavior in German society. Tasks of the study include establishing the origin, frequency of the phraseological phrase and correlating it as a heterostereotype with Germans’ perceptions of themselves. The research reveals that actualization of the ethnostereotype ‘German quarrel’ in German discourse is carried out in two ways ‒ through a French loanword and its German-language equivalent ‘eine deutsche Querele’, both expressions have limited functioning in German and represent a combination of hetero- and autostereotype, with the former based on the history of conflicts between Germans and the French, and the latter on Germans’ own observations of the peculiarities of national character. The cultural scenario ‘German quarrel’ that is formed on the basis of the ethnostereotype cannot be considered a norm, but can be called a negative or undesirable scenario of behavior, which some Germans treat critically or with self-irony, while others do not recognize the existence of this ethnostereotype, consider it outdated and are not familiar with the French expression ‘querelle d’Allemand’.