Copyright by Chantal Marie Tetreault 2004
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Copyright by Chantal Marie Tetreault 2004 The Dissertation Committee for Chantal Marie Tetreault Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Communicative Performances of Social Identity in an Algerian-French Neighborhood in Paris Committee: Joel Sherzer, Supervisor Elizabeth Keating, Co-Supervisor Deborah Kapchan Pauline Turner Strong Keith Walters Robert Fernea Communicative Performances of Social Identity in an Algerian-French Neighborhood in Paris by Chantal Marie Tetreault, M.A., B.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2004 Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Mary Kay and Marc Tetreault, for their love and support. Acknowledgements The completion of this dissertation was made possible through help from a variety of people that I would like to humbly acknowledge. I would first like to thank my dissertation supervisors, Joel Sherzer and Elizabeth Keating, as well as members of the dissertation committee, Deborah Kapchan, Pauline Turner Strong, Keith Walters, and Robert Fernea, for their generous support, inspiration, and patience. My deepest gratititude goes to the people who made this project possible by graciously allowing me to share their daily lives and by answering my many questions. Thanks also to folks who have helped along the way with writing advice, technical or emotional support, and friendship: Carol Cannon, Vânia Cardoso, Wai Fong Chiang, Scott Head, Travis Jordan, Liz Lilliott, Dana Maya Maynard, Christy Moore, Katie Sosnoff, Lauren Wagner, and Elana Zilberg. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for never losing faith in my ability or resolve to finish this project. v Communicative Performances of Social Identity in an Algerian-French Neighborhood in Paris Publication No._____________ Chantal Marie Tetreault, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2004 Supervisors: Joel Sherzer and Elizabeth Keating This dissertation examines cultural and communicative practices occurring in French cités (low-income housing projects) as part of an ethnographic inquiry into the relationship among subcultural style, social stigmatization, and expressive culture. Based upon ethnographic fieldwork in a cité located fifteen kilometers west of Paris, the dissertation argues that performances of social identity among individuals growing up both French and Arab are articulated in relation to widely circulating discourses related to ethnicity, spatial affiliation, and gender. In this regard, the author analyzes everyday verbal performances of social identity as creative responses to widely circulating discourses that alternately stigmatize and valorize Arabs and la cité. Particularly central to these performances are French discourses regarding immigration and intégration that measure racialized national subjects against a white, bourgeois norm. The dissertation analyzes speech genres, such as ritualized teasing and verbal play, to understand the ways that individuals articulate social identity through collaborative verbal performances. In this regard, local discourses and codes of behavior associated with le respect (‘respect’) alternately overlap and compete with a code of behavior termed ‘reputation’. The author vi defines le respect as a social code that prescribes adherence to behavioral standards including showing deference for one’s elders and that is loosely based upon an age and gender hierarchy typical of Algeria and the Mediterranean more generally. In contrast to le respect, ‘reputation’ refers, in part, to the public display of verbal prowess that contributes to the presentation and management of personal identity among one’s peers. Much like “respect,” however, reputation was differently ordered or conceived for young men and women in Chemin de l'Ile. Whereas male speakers are expected to physically defend themselves and their reputations through physical fighting, female speakers attempt to emphasize their tough verbal styles and a public image that they are sexually unavailable and inactive (thus also preserving le respect). In verbal exchanges that blend cultural and linguistic expectations from traditional North African age and gender hierarchy with those that correspond to ideals about personal reputation, speakers elaborate their relationship, on the one hand, to their immigrant origins, and other the other, to an emergent urban subculture. vii Table of Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Adolescent Identity Practices and the Discourse-Centered Approach ..........6 Discourse-Centered Scholarship on North African and Arabic Speaking Populations ..........................................................................................10 Transliteration and Translation of Arabic Terms .........................................15 Methodology ................................................................................................18 Organization of the Dissertation ..................................................................20 Chapter One: Space, Race, and Stigmatization: Ethnography in a French Cité....24 Stigmatizing Labels: ZEP, ZUP, HLM, and Cité .........................................26 Arabs of Algerian Descent at the Center of Dominant Discourses of Cultural Difference and National Identity .........................................................34 The Case of Algerian Migration and Anti-Immigrant Backlash .................37 Intégration ....................................................................................................43 French Cités as Contested Spaces of Intégration .........................................47 Conclusion ...................................................................................................51 Chapter Two: Style and Stigma: Representations of ‘Race’, Space, and Cité Culture .......................................................................................................................52 Popular Representations of the Cité: Film, Music, and Language ...............57 Film…………………………………………………………………...60 Music ...................................................................................................64 Language .............................................................................................66 Local Production of Cité Styles: Dance Spectacle and Fête du Quartier ....71 Dance Spectacle ..................................................................................71 Fête du Quartier ..................................................................................75 La Racaille as the Apex of Style and Consumption Practices .....................82 La Racaille: Figuring Style and Stigma .......................................................84 Moralities of Production and Consumption: the Cité as Parallel Economy .97 viii Conclusion .................................................................................................102 Chapter Three: Symbols of Identity: Stereotypes and Social Categories in Interaction .....................................................................................................................103 ‘Un Scène de Racisme’ ..............................................................................107 “Sans Problème” or “Cent Problèmes”?: Revoicing Stereotypes about les Arabes ...............................................................................................120 Crossing Categories: Cultural Punning and Linguistic Play ......................135 Conclusion .................................................................................................140 Chapter Four: Parental 'Name-Calling as Identity Display ................................142 Locating Parental ‘Name-Calling’ in Relation to Local and Non-Local Speech Genres: Afficher and “Teasing” ........................................................150 Parental Insults as an Enactment of the Peer Group ..................................157 Parental Name-Calling as Speech Event ....................................................163 Kinship as Intimacy, Knowledge, and Discursive Power ..........................172 ‘“Cousins” Talk How They Want’: Relational Identity and Performative Kinship ..............................................................................................177 Conclusion .................................................................................................184 Chapter Five: “You Call That a Girl?”: Gender Borderwork and Crossing........186 Le respect and Gender in Public Neighborhood Space .............................190 Gender and Generation in Gatherings at Local Associations ....................195 The All-Girl Soccer Team .........................................................................201 Intimate Spaces of Respect: Women’s Bodies in Cultural (Re)Production.202 Dating, Sexuality, and Marriage ................................................................207 The Politics of Dress Styles ........................................................................212 Reputation: Cité Styles and Gendered Performances in Practice ..............220 To Make a Blow of Pressure’: Competitive Bragging Routines ................223 Narrative Bragging and Gender Expectations ............................................227 ‘My name is Cécile’: (Re)voicing