Negotiating Identity: Codeswitching in Hélène Berr’s Journal

Codeswitching in Journal (2008) by Hélène Berr can be explained by Carol Myers-Scotton’s extended Markedness Model. Berr uses French when operating within community norms, but uses English to establish a new set of rights and obligations. The departure of Berr’s fiancé halfway through the journal provokes two important changes: the virtual disappearance of positive-emotion codeswitches and the appearance of literary citations in English. The presence of codeswitching at critical moments of the diary, including Berr’s last words, attests to the importance of this linguistic strategy in the negotiation and projection of Berr’s identity during the German occupation of France.