Le Gayle Dans La Communauté Queer Et Coloured De Cape Town : Idéologies Linguistiques, Performances Et Identités

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Le Gayle Dans La Communauté Queer Et Coloured De Cape Town : Idéologies Linguistiques, Performances Et Identités Université de Montréal Le gayle dans la communauté queer et coloured de Cape Town : Idéologies linguistiques, performances et identités par Simon-Charles Thériault Département d’anthropologie Faculté des arts et des sciences Mémoire présenté en vue de l’obtention du grade de Maîtrise ès Science (M.Sc.) en Anthropologie Décembre 2019 © Thériault, 2019 Résumé Ce mémoire porte sur les transformations sociohistoriques du gayle en Afrique du Sud, une variété linguistique de l’afrikaans et de l'anglais, au répertoire lexical souvent improvisé. S’appuyant sur six mois de terrain ethnographique au Cap, ce travail se base sur des données (méta)linguistiques tirées d’observation participante ainsi que d’entretiens individuels et de groupe au sein de la communauté coloured. Je critique une perspective qui envisage le gayle comme une « anti-langue » (Halliday 1976), une méthode de communication secrète et exclusive à une communauté fermée. Plutôt, je suggère que le phénomène est mieux compris lorsqu’abordé en tant que registre d'une communauté de pratique (Eckert et McConnell-Ginet 2003). Mes entretiens révèlent son association historique et « enregistrée » avec la figure caractérologique (Agha 2007) de l’homosexuel efféminé coloured ou moffie. Toutefois, les participants expriment un malaise face à cette idéologie puisqu’ils sont conscients que cette construction « efface » (Gal et Irvine 2000) les locuteurs non canoniques du gayle. Au-delà de la description lexicale, mon analyse suggère des chevauchements entre les caractéristiques sémantiques et pragmatiques de la variété, toutes deux stratégiquement déployées pour invoquer des caractéristiques évanescentes et des attributs sociaux dans l’interaction (Butler 1990). Au même titre que les éléments du répertoire ne correspondent pas à des significations sémantiques fixes – mais plutôt à des réalisations discursives contingentes – l’utilisation du gayle ne se limite pas à des identités sociales statiques. L'appartenance à la communauté est plutôt marquée par l’utilisation légitime et la compréhension mutuelle de déviations lexicales créatives et contextuelles. Mots-clés: Gayle, langue et sexualité, registre linguistique, communauté de pratique, linguistique postcoloniale, Afrique du Sud, linguistique queer, i Abstract This thesis focuses on sociohistorical transformations of Gayle, a linguistic variety consisting of an often-improvised lexical repertoire superimposed upon either Afrikaans or English in South Africa. Based on six months of fieldwork in Cape Town, this thesis draws on rich (meta)linguistic data drawn from participant-observation, as well as individual and group interviews within the coloured community. I critique an 'anti-language' (Halliday 1976) perspective, wherein Gayle is seen as uniquely anchored to a closed community for which it serves as an exclusive, ingroup code. Rather, I suggest that Gayle is best understood when approached as the register of a community of practice (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003). My interviews expose the historical and 'enregistered' association of Gayle with the racialized, gendered and sexualized ‘characterological figure’ (Agha 2007) of the effeminate coloured gay man or moffie. This association serves as a backdrop to contemporary anxieties about the ways in which Gayle is mapped onto speakers’ social identities and perhaps shows the respondent’s consciousness that these formulations ‘erase’ (Irvine and Gal 2000) non-canonical users of Gayle. Moving beyond lexical description, I suggest overlaps between the semantic and pragmatic features of the variety, both strategically deployed to invoke evanescent characteristics and social attributes in interaction (cf. Butler 1990). Just as elements of the Gayle repertoire do not code for fixed semantic meanings – but are rather contingent, discursive achievements – Gayle does not 'code for' static social identities. Instead, it achieves group belonging in interaction through legitimate use and mutual comprehension of creative linguistic 'deviations' and 'subversions'. Keywords: Gayle, sexuality and language, speech registers, community of practice, post- colonial linguistics, South Africa, queer linguistics, lavender linguistics ii Table des matières Résumé ......................................................................................................................................... i Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... ii Table des matières...................................................................................................................... iii Liste des tableaux ....................................................................................................................... vi Liste des figures ........................................................................................................................ vii Liste des sigles ............................................................................................................................. i Mise en forme typographique des entretiens .............................................................................. ii Remerciements ............................................................................................................................. i Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 Questions de recherche ........................................................................................................... 5 Objectifs et motivations de recherche ..................................................................................... 5 Quelques précisions terminologiques ..................................................................................... 7 Aperçu du mémoire................................................................................................................. 7 Chapitre 1 : Revue de la littérature ........................................................................................... 10 1.1. Première vague (1950-1960).......................................................................................... 11 1.1.1. Slang et argot .......................................................................................................... 12 1.1.2. Langue et anti-langue .............................................................................................. 14 1.1.2.1. Étude de cas : le Polari .................................................................................. 15 1.2. Seconde vague théorique (1970-1980) .......................................................................... 16 1.2.1. Indexicalité .............................................................................................................. 18 1.2.2. Style ........................................................................................................................ 20 1.2.2.1. La paralinguistique........................................................................................ 22 1.2.3. Le camp ................................................................................................................... 23 1.3. Troisième vague (1980 à aujourd’hui) ........................................................................... 25 1.3.1. Idéologie linguistique et stéréotype ........................................................................ 27 1.3.2. Registre linguistique ............................................................................................... 29 1.3.2.1. Étude de cas: Bahasa gay ............................................................................. 31 1.3.3. Communauté de pratique ........................................................................................ 33 1.4. Les théories queer .......................................................................................................... 35 iii 1.4.1. La performativité du genre...................................................................................... 35 1.4.1.1. Étude de cas : IsiNgqumo ............................................................................. 38 1.4.2. La dénaturalisation du genre ................................................................................... 40 1.4.3. Performer la sexualité ............................................................................................. 41 1.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 44 Chapitre 2 : Mise en contexte de la pratique............................................................................. 46 2.1. Identités coloured : origine et communauté ................................................................... 46 2.2. Expression de la sexualité: les moffies et le drag .......................................................... 49 2.3. Littérature sur le gayle ................................................................................................... 51 2.3.1. Les premières approches ......................................................................................... 53 2.3.2. Révisions et réactions ............................................................................................. 55 2.4. Décrire le gayle : exemples de mots et d’utilisation ...................................................... 57 Chapitre 3 : Méthodologie .......................................................................................................
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