Amanda Gerke, an American sociolinguist based at the University of Salamanca, has published a 10,000-word article on code-switching in the work of Gibraltarian author M. G. Sanchez. Entitled ‘Discursive boundaries: code-switching as representative of Gibraltarian identity construction in M. G. Sanchez’s Rock Black,’ the article appeared in the latest edition of Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, a scholarly periodical published by the University of Zaragoza.

Dr Gerke’s article looks at how Gibraltar’s political situation is represented in M. G. Sanchez’s writing, and considers how language choice is used by contemporary Gibraltarians as a tool in the construction of group-identity.

She writes: “Llanito describes the language and the language users, and the Gibraltarian experience is the interchange between the two. It is a reflection of choices a group makes of themselves, and about themselves. M.G. Sanchez forms part of a small collective of authors who are making strides in reclaiming their own representation and lashing back at outside attempts to tell the Gibraltarian story.”

Dr Gerke concludes her piece by asserting that Gibraltarians have “a dynamic and multifaceted identity” which “is neither British, nor Spanish, but entirely their own.”

The full article can be downloaded for free on this link: http://www.miscelaneajournal.net/index.php/misc/article/view/507/275

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