Queering the norm, norming the queer: remaking Man through linguistic citizenship

ABSTRACT

This article centres multilingualism in relation to gender, sexuality, culture, and race, presenting the narrative of one participant, Samson, who self-identifies as a black, queer, man and refers to several linguistic varieties that he has some proficiency in. The narrative emerged from an interview conducted in which Samson discussed his language portrait, a multimodal biographical method. Thematic analysis was used as a starting point in interpreting how Samson discursively constructs language in relation to gender, racial, sexual, and cultural positions. To unpack Samson’s constructions of self and others we bring decolonial feminist theoretical approaches in conversation with linguistic citizenship. We argue that Samson is trying to undo the normative conceptions of a range of identity categories and that he narrates several different discursive and social strategies to develop new subjectivities for himself and to create new relationalities. In his decolonial project of being, he tries to queer the norm and norm the queer. Samson’s story provides us with the possibility of living and languaging outside of colonial structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Linguistic citizenship
• multilingualism
• decolonial feminism
• queer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Although the theoretical coinage of intersectionality only happened in the 1990s the activist roots of intersectionality go much further back and in the 1960s people like Audre Lorde and Angela Davis already engaged in intersectional thinking. In this paper we also want to acknowledge the praxis of intersectionality.

2 The project that this data was collected from received ethical clearance from the Research Ethics Committee: Humanities at Stellenbosch University (Project number REC-2018-6649). The participant reported on here provided researchers with written informed consent.

3 Colloquial term for ‘township’ possibly derived from the Afrikaans word ‘Lokasie’ which in English means location. ‘Loction’ is another way people refer to it.

4 The word is often used interchangeably for both a barbershop and a salon

5 The term coloured like all racial categories is socially constructed. The term is an Apartheid classification that referred to people of mixed descent which includes (but does not exclude other identities) the indigenous Khoi and San, slave heritage, Nguni, and white settlers. Although hotly disputed the term is still commonly used both by the community previously classified as coloured and by the government for redress purposes.

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided by the Harry Crossley Foundation and the Graduate School of the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty at Stellenbosch University.

Notes on contributors

Simangele Mashazi

Simangele Mashazi is a Junior Lecturer and a PhD candidate in the Department of General Linguistics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her research is informed by arts-based methodologies. Her PhD focusses on the intersections between multilingualism, race and gender.

Marcelyn Oostendorp

Marcelyn Oostendorp is an Associate Professor in the Department of General Linguistics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her research is primarily concerned with multilingual and multimodal forms of meaning-making.