§03§ §16§The aim of this study was to expose the constructed nature of national identity in two dramatic texts: The Patriot Game (1991) by Irish playwright Tom Murphy and In der Löwengrube (1989) by his Austrian counterpart Felix Mitterer. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach combining linguistics, literature, history and cultural studies, this thesis looked at similarities and dissimilarities in the construction and deconstruction of national identity in the two plays. Ruth Wodak et al.'s linguistic approach developed in the work on Critical Discourse Analysis describing the construction of national identity in non-literary texts provided a framework, which has been modified for the analysis of the two dramatic texts under consideration. §02§The Author: Birgit Ryschka, born in Leibnitz (Austria), studied German, Philosophy, Psychology and Educational Science at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. In 2007, she received her doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Limerick (Ireland), where she has taught German in the Department of Languages and Cultural Studies for several years.
