Language and Gendered Modernity

Queer (af)filiations: Houria Bouteldja and decolonial feminism

“…Provencher (2017) uses the term in the context of discussions concerning the social productions of queer Maghrebi and queer Maghrebi French speakers to describe the ‘creation of filial ties through subversive and transgressive artistic and cultural productions, and the transmission of those models across genres and generations of producers and consumers, and across transnational networks of communication’ (p. 47). Provencher’s theoretical framework for transfiliations interfaces with William Leap’s (2003) socio-linguistic concept of the ‘flexible accumulation of language’ (p. 417). Relying on David Harvey’s (1990) discussion of flexible accumulation in the economic sphere, Leap encourages us to think about how the larger accumulation of opportunities, resources, statuses, and meanings that unfold unevenly in the economic sphere across boundaries of race, sexuality, class, and nationality might also do the same in linguistic terms.…”

“…Relying on David Harvey’s (1990) discussion of flexible accumulation in the economic sphere, Leap encourages us to think about how the larger accumulation of opportunities, resources, statuses, and meanings that unfold unevenly in the economic sphere across boundaries of race, sexuality, class, and nationality might also do the same in linguistic terms. Indeed, within the specific decentralised and fractured conditions of both late modernity and decoloniality, speakers, like the queer Maghrebi and Maghrebi French interlocutors of Provencher’s study, must construct and assert individualised positions not from a single linguistic, cultural, and social tradition, but rather are forced to draw on what Leap (2003) has called ‘a broad accumulation of linguistic and other symbolic resources . .…”

Launching a new phase in language and sexuality studies

“…Unlike registers or codes, which imply a more stable or enduring relationship between linguistic practice and social location, style suggests expressions of meaning through distinction and possibility, that is, through an ongoing mediation of ideological assumptions, social position, personal interests and (a range of) linguistic practices (Irvine 2001: 23-24). Understandably, applied to the intersections of sexuality, discourse and text, style may be productively described as a process of stylization (Cameron 2000), where linguistic and social practices are flexible accumulated (Leap 2003) within a fluid framework of bricôlage (Eckert 1996). Studies of stylization practices show a dual focus on what is done in linguistic performances (for example, which identities or desires) as well as how it is done.…”

Globalization and Gay Language

“…The terms are not used interchangeably, making fl exible accumulation (Leap, 2003 ) [ … ] M asha : ((takes cordless mike)) Well thank you very much. In this case, the languages used are English and Swardspeak.…”