| Summary: | This paper describes the characteristics of the diplomatic discourse between France and Germany from 1870 to the First World War through the analysis of a corpus of diplomatic correspondence. The latter is divided into two main genres: the letters exchanged between foreign ministries and ambassadors, and the correspondence between states. These two genres reflect different socio-discursive practices and aim at different objectives; their main common point is the role played by the ambassador as the central axis of the communication. Although very formal and distanced in order to preserve international harmony, the notes between states are strongly argumentative texts which crystallize antagonist positions and express subjective points of view “masked” by rational arguments. Diplomatic reports, in spite of their generic constraints, have high relational stakes, and leave considerable room to self-presentation, or the construction of ethos. The concomitant analysis of these two forms of diplomatic correspondence enlightens the way diplomatic exchanges work at this period and helps to understand the evolution of the discursive interaction between the two involved states. Beyond this distinction between genres, some constitutive features of diplomatic discourse can be identified. Because it must reconcile antithetical aims such as defense of national interests and preservation of international peace, diplomatic discourse has to use linguistic forms that are oblique and implicit. It also recurs to ritualized exchanges in order to save the territory and the “face” of nations. Identity borders between national egos can be perceived as well in the materiality of the discourse, especially during periods of international crisis.
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