Autobiografische Erzählungen als Werkzeug zur Untersuchung der Esperanto-Gemeinschaft

The Esperanto community is undoubtedly one composed mainly of non-native speakers. Research shows that foreign language speakers usually see themselves as “failed native speakers” (Cook 1999) rather than multicompetent and multilingual speakers. However, it is known that native speakers play no great role in establishing norms in Esperanto (see Fiedler 2012). It is therefore worth to examine how Esperanto users construe their second language identity. This paper discusses the role of biographical narratives in the investigation of the nature of the Esperanto community. An analysis of linguistic autobiographies could reveal whether users of Esperanto position themselves in the imagined community as foreign language learners or rather legitimate speakers of the target language.