The Human Face of the European Union: A Critical Study

This paper intends to broaden investigations on the strategies and genres adopted by the EU to win consensus and promote its institutional structure. Attention is called to alternative tools supplementing the (ever-growing) array of discursive devices and structures employed in EU brochures of comparable nature. In particular, focus will be placed on the “humanization” of the European Union, achieved by means of the incorporation of EU employees’ profiles in the Union’ informative material. The attribution of precise names, faces, roles and objectives to activities carried out at the European Union will be examined and the social impact of such attribution discussed within the framework of critical discourse analysis.