Séminaire doctoral – Pratiques langagières – terrains, méthodes, théories

2 décembre 2022 --14h00 - 17h00

Animé par Isabelle Léglise et Valelia Muni Toke (INALCO, 2 rue de Lille, salle L0.01)

Stéphanie Rudwick (University of Hradec Králové) South African raciolinguistic dynamics of marginalisation and empowerment

In this talk I aim to carve out some of the complexities in the processes of marginalization taking place in South Africa due to raciolinguistic realities that are linked to the assumption that English is the putative lingua franca. At the same time, and in line with the theme of the ambiguity of all language usage I also portray how the defiance of the lingua franca status of English can be used for political empowerment by an African language speaker in a traditionally hegemonic English space. Specifically, I explain how South Africa’s ex-president, Jacob Zuma, evokes cultural, gender and linguistic identity politics by his ‘deep’ usage of the Zulu language. But I also show how the racial and raciolinguistic ideologies of English are intertwined with the discrimination of black South Africans. Selected narratives of black South Africans’ experience of the South African housing market show the limits of language against the power of race. Focusing on the domains of ambiguities rather than the domains of language usage, the discussion takes place across contexts and settings. Lastly, I discuss how some Afrikaners have embraced a problematic marginalization rhetoric by constructing what has been termed ‘subaltern whiteness’ by pitching the ‘coloniality’ of English against Afrikaner indigeneity.