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Τόπος, χώρος, γλώσσα και γραφή: Η εθνογραφική έρευνα του γλωσσικού τοπίου στο βαλκανικό χώρο
Abstract
LESoL) Τμήμα Κοινωνικής Ανθρωπολογίας και Ιστορίας Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου c.canakis@sa.aegean.gr * lesol@sa.aegean.gr
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graffiti, anti-language, semiotics, anarchists, social movements, Greece
Abstract
This paper investigates aspects of the Linguistic Landscape of central Belgrade between 2009 and 2017, theorizing its findings at the intersection of sociolinguistics, ethnography, and semiotics, which has gained ground as the platform of choice in “second wave” linguistic landscape (LL) research. It focuses on dynamic indexical
relations between space and language in the framework of superdiversity, as a way of making sense of language-in-society. To this end, it problematizes how ideologically laden identitarian concerns (such as digraphia/double literacy but also Christian Orthodoxy and heteronormativity as an index of srpstvo) find their
way onto Stari Grad walls. Such concerns have considerable – and often lasting – effects on the LL which can only be adequately investigated by systematic ethnographic studies of the semiotic means employed in inscribing it.
Key words: linguistic landscape, identity, indexicality, digraphia, homosexuality,
Belgrade
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork during the times of economic crisis, this article addresses protest graffiti created by young people, often living in precarious conditions. The text explores the uncertain living conditions of Greek youth in the era of austerity and investigates the graffiti act as a cultural tool through which a young graffitists seeks alternative modes to express its dissatisfaction, protest and, often, readiness for social change. It employs a socio-semiotic analysis combining a biographical approach of graffiti writers’ lived experiences and the semiotic analysis of graffiti creation within the specific social and cultural context in which the very act of graffiti is performed. Exploring the social world of politically themed or existentialism-oriented graffiti in various Greek cities, the analysis shed light on the structures of feeling of young people living under adverse conditions, revealing social and aesthetic trends, expressive forms of social protest, and existential quests within Greek youth. The research findings show that the scene of political-existential graffiti is an encounter between the subversive aesthetic aura of graffiti with the counter-austerity movement’s repertory of collective action in the ongoing struggle against austerity policies.
This paper discusses the urban writing on Athenian walls as an imaginative medium of intercommunication occurring during the socioeconomic and political crisis era in Greece, over the last seven years. The street art activity on the city’s walls as a linguistic and imagery phenomenon could be approached as the main symbolic mode of public expression generated by the crisis. To investigate it fieldwork research was conducted in central Athens from January to July 2015. Three research methods were applied: participant observation into two graffiti crews, consequent photo documentation of wall writings, and eight semi-structured interviews with street artists. The research findings disclose the metamorphosis of public walls into an interactive public notebook as an attestation of the processes in the Athenian multimodal urban landscape.
Stadiou Street, one of three main routes connecting Omonoia and Syntagma Squares, and among the leafiest thoroughfares until 2010, bespeaks a story of urban de-gentrification (Author 2016). While the forbiddingly expensive jewelry and clothing stores and a couple of top hotels are still there, Stadiou maintains this character for only a block, beyond which it has been radically de-gentrified, and appropriated by “the others” of Greek society (cf. Yannakopoulos/Giannitsiotis 2010; Seals 2013) as suggested by the spray-canned messages on Stadiou’s prized national monuments and exclusive shops. Spray-canned directives (1-2) and expressive assertions (3-5), along with a variety of oral and written discourses around the city, testify to a heightened awareness of exclusion, and constitute vociferous attempts at symbolically appropriating emblematic strongholds of the local status quo (symbolically located either on or in the immediate vicinity of Stadiou) which has been marked by a sharp right-wing turn in times of crisis (cf. Kitis & Milani 2015) (1) ΝΑ ZΗΣΟΥΜΕ ΣΕ ΚΟΣΜΟ ΑΝΑΡΧΙΚΟ (2) Η ΑΘΗΝΑ ΛΕΣΒΙA Ο ΕΡΜΗΣ ΑΝΑΔΡΟΜΟΣ ΚΑΙ Η ΕΡΜΟΥ ΠΕΖΟΔΡΟΜΟΣ (3) OΥΤΕ ΟΜΟΦΟΒΙΑ ΟΥΤΕ ΑΛΛΕΣ ΑΗΔΙΕΣ ΣΦΑΓΕΙΑ ΔΕΝ Θ’ ΑΦΗΣΟΥΜΕ ΝΑ ΓΙΝΟΥΝ ΟΙ ΠΛΑΤΕΙΕΣ (4) ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ ΠΕΙΡΑΙΑ ΩΣ ΤΟ ΠΑΓΚΡΑΤΙ ΜΕ ΣΒΑΣΤΙΚΑ Ή ΧΩΡΙΣ Η ΟΜΟΦΟΒΙΑ Ο ΡΑΤΣΙΣΜΟΣ ΚΑΙ Η ΤΡΑΝΣΦΟΒΙΑ ΚΑΛΑ ΚΡΑΤΟΥΝ (5) ΤΟ ΚΕΛΠΝΟ ΒΡΩΜΑΕΙ AKOMA ΡΑΤΣΙΣΜΟ Moreover, in Athens, counter-discourses often explicitly target “patriots,” “the nation,” and “national unity” (cf. 6-9). (6) ΣΕ ΚΑΘΕ ΣΕΞΙΣΤΗ ΚΑΙ ΟΜΟΦΟΒΟΒΙΚΟ ΑΞΙΖΕΙ ΜΙΑ ΒΟΥΤΙΑ ΑΠ’ ΤΟ ΛΥΚΑΒΗΤΟ [sic] (7) ΜΙΣΟΣ ΕΚΦΥΛΟ ΜΑΤΣΟ ΠΑΤΡΙΩΤΕΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΘΝΙΚΗ ΕΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΠΑΝΤΟΤΕ ΠΡΟΔΟΤΡΕΣ (8) ΠΟΥΣΤΑΡΕΣ ΛΕΣΒΙΕΣ ΙΕΡΕΙΕΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΙΣΧΟΥΣ ΕΙΜΑΣΤΕ ΠΕΡΗΦΑΝΑ Η ΝΤΡΟΠΗ ΤΟΥ ΕΘΝΟΥΣ Looking at gendered and sexed citizenship in Athens through the linguistic, indeed semiotic, landscape (Jaworski & Thurlow 2010; Blommaert 2013; Stroud & Jegels 2014) has to do with public literacy practices and, more specifically, counter-literacies (Pennycook 2009, 2010). Graffiti, as politically significant scribbled speech in public space, often goes against the grain of local conceptions of national propriety and respectability, especially when addressing gendered and sexual normalcy (cf. Mosse 1982, 1985a, 1985b; Pryke 1998) or masculinity (cf. Nagel 1998), which is indexically related to active, agentive sexuality in the Greek imaginary (Author 2015, 2016; cf. Milani 2014, 2015a, 2015b). Τhe data constitute purposeful utterances addressing members of the author(s)’s in-group as well as members of out-groups and are informed by specific ideologies and national narratives (Author 2013, 2014; Johnston 2015; Radović 2013), as well as recently coined counter-narratives (cf. Author 2016, Kasanga 2014), of which these public signs are but one instantiation. Such a synthesis elucidates how gendered and sexually relevant language in the LL of Stadiou is crucial in claiming politically symbolic space, while arguing for current arguments (cf. Blommaert & Maly 2014, Barni & Bagna 2015, and Blommaert 2015, 2016) which capitalize on the merits of a qualitative, ethnographic approach to linguistic landscapes.
References Author. 2016. Author. 2015. Author. 2014. Author. 2013. Barni, Monica & Bagna, Carla. 2015. “The critical turn in LL: New methodologies and new items in LL.” Linguistic Landscape: An International Journal 1(1-2): 6-18. Blommaert, Jan. 2013. Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Blommaert, Jan & Maly, Ico. 2014. “Ethnographic linguistic landscape analysis and social change: A case study.” Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies 100. Blommaert, Jan. 2016. “The conservative turn in linguistic landscape studies.” http://alternative-democracy-research.org/2016/01/05/the-conservative-turn-in-linguisticlandscape-studies/ Jaworski, Adam & Thurlow, Crispin. 2010. “Introducing semiotic landscapes.” In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (eds.), Semiotic Landscapes: Language, Image, Space. London & New York: Continuum, 1-40. Johnston, Lynda T. 2015. “Sexuality and space.” In J. D. Wright (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2nd edition. Vol. 21. Oxford: Elsevier, 808-812. Kasanga, Luanga A. 2014. “The linguistic landscape: Mobile signs, code choice, symbolic meaning and territoriality in the discourse of protest.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 230: 19-44. Kitis, E. Dimitris & Milani, T. M. 2015. The performativity of the body: Turbulent spaces in Greece. Linguistic Landscape, 1(3): 268-290. Knight, Daniel M. 2015. “Wit and Greece’s economic crisis: Ironic slogans, food, and antiausterity sentiments.” American Ethnologist 42(2): 230-246. Milani, Tommaso M. 2014. “Sexed signs – queering the scenery.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 228: 201-225. Milani, Tommaso M. 2015a. “Language and citizenship: Broadening the agenda.” Journal of Language and politics 14(3): 319-334. Milani, Tommaso M. 2015b. “Sexual cityzenship: Discourses, spaces and bodies at Joburg Pride 2012.” Journal of Language and politics 14(3): 431-454. Pennycook, Alastair. 2010. Language as a Local Practice. Abingdon: Routledge. Radović, Srđan. 2013. Grad kao tekst. Beograd: Biblioteka XX vek. Seals, Corrine A. 2013. “Creating a landscape of dissent in Washington, DC.” In C. Hélot, M. Barni, R. Janssens, & C. Bagna (eds.), Linguistic Landscapes, Multilingualism and Social Change. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 127-138. Stroud, Christopher & Jegels, Dmitri. 2014. “Semiotic landscapes and mobile narrations of place: Performing the local.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 238: 179-199. Yannakopoulos, Kostas & Giannitsiotis, Giannis (eds.) (2010). Αμφισβητούμενοι χώροι στην πόλη [Contested spaces in the city]. Athens: Alexandreia.
For a small subcultural tourist group, graffiti have become an object of their travelling gaze. Jinman (2007), for example, reports that Melbourne's graffiti have achieved international renown to the extent that tourists head straight for some of the best-known alleys. One such is Hosier Lane, just off Federation Square in central Melbourne, where two young Korean women, having seen Melbourne street art on Korean television are now examining and photographing 'a dense, lurid collage that ranges from rudimentary signatures drawn in marker pen to giant dayglo paintings and intricate paper prints pasted on the wall. "Very good," says one, indicating a playful image of a moon-faced Asian child hugging a docile killer whale. "I like it very much'" (p. 11). &lch graffiti tourism can be seen as part of the broader domain of hip-hop tourism (Xie, Osumare and Ibrahim, 2007), which in turn is related to music tourism more generally (Gibson and Connell, 2005). As Xie et al. (2007) explain, 'The ghetto or the hood, which were once a source of sublime terror and fear, have been transformed by Hip-Hop into an enticing landscape for tourism: an image, a sound, graffiti mural waiting at a distance for visual and sensory consumption by those who come from farther afield' (p. 456).
While categorization and indexicality have been a recurring theme in language and sexuality research, and forms of talk are understood as indexically related to social practices and categories in specific contexts, the dynamic character of categorization is less often acknowledged. Although few, if any, linguists would subscribe to an Aristotelian, static view of categorization, language and sexuality research has rarely engaged with the insights provided by prototype theory into linguistic categorization. This chapter intends to show that although categories are motivated, binding, and potentially wounding, they are flexible and subject to change, as are their indexical relations. Categorization is inevitable, but the specific categories we employ are historical constructs and thereby negotiable and redefinable. It is argued that understanding categorization and indexicality as dynamic can contribute to language and sexuality research, especially to the queer linguistic critique of categories with respect to the normative discourses sustaining them.
