The social semiotic of reclaiming an identity from racist discourse: investigating the subaltern identity of South African coloureds by means of intersectional discourse analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper advances a socio-semiotic approach to reclaiming identities. The discussion draws on interviews with South African coloureds, i.e., members of a mix-race and multi-ethnic community formed during slavery and (post)colonialism, and for a long time positioned as ‘black-and-white residue’. Approaching coloureds’ post-apartheid reinvention of self as a socio-semiotic process, the paper approaches it via the magnifying glass of indexicality analysis. An intersectional discourse analysis examines how speakers re-negotiate coloureds’ inherited position between dominant races by, e.g., investing meaning into racialized and classed objects and spaces. Concluding, the paper discusses the critical role of language and culture in the postcolonial re-appropriation of racial identities.Niniejszy artykuł przedstawia socjo-semiotyczne podejście do odzyskiwania tożsamości w kontekście postkolonialnym. Badanie opiera się na wywiadach z południowoafrykańskimi koloredkami, tj. członkiniami wielorasowej i wieloetnicznej wspólnoty uformowanej w warunkach niewolnictwa i postkolonializmu, przez lata pozycjonowanej jako ‘czarno-białe resztki’. Traktując odzyskiwanie tożsamości przez koloredów jako proces socjo-semiotyczny, analiza pokazuje je przez pryzmat analizy indeksykalności. W ramach intersekcjonalnej analizy dyskursu, artykuł przedstawia, jak uczestniczki badania renegocjują tradycyjną pozycję koloredów pomiędzy dominującymi rasami, np. nadając nowe znaczenia przedmiotom oraz przestrzeniom o znaczeniu rasowym i klasowym. Podsumowując, artykuł omawia krytyczną rolę języka i kultury w postkolonialnym re-artykułowaniu tożsamości rasowych.KEYWORDS: Discourse analysisidentitySouth Africa Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Emphasis mine.2 Ethics Clearance issued by Free State University (UFS-HUM-2015-72).3 With the exception of one bisexual.4 Consequently, I use the notions of ‘identity’ and ‘subjectivity’ interchangeably. The former inheres in popular (hence, also participants’) thinking about self, the latter more closely illustrates the mechanisms of creolization.5 The repertoires were identified via a cyclical reading of interview transcripts.6 The labels are not randomly related with the material reality. The incarceration rate and substance abuse among coloureds is higher than among any other South African ethnicity (Johnson, Citation2017).7 A colloquial name for crystal methamphetamine.8 In Extract 8, a lunchbox consists of ‘the orange, some fruit and a yoghurt [and] a cereal bar’.9 Two utterances following one another with no perceptible fall.10 For the notion of ‘doing’ an identity, see West and Fenstermaker (Citation1995).11 Coles (Citation2016).12 Khoisanism, a more top-down attempt at establishing a unified conceptualization of colouredness as descendant from KhoiSan people (i.e. South African indigenous people), was not mentioned by the participants. Two of them mentioned coloureds’ links with the KhoiSan, but the entire group (including the two women) expressed a stronger connection to their non-indigenous South African ancestors, and emphasized the multi-racial and multi-ethnic character of their community.13 See pp. 6–7.Additional informationNotes on contributorsEwa GlapkaEwa Glapka currently works at the Institute of Linguistics, Szczecin University, Poland. Her research interests include critical discourse analysis, social semiotics and critical discursive psychology. Her book, Reading Bridal Magazines from a Critical Discursive Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), combines a number of approaches in critical discourse studies in a case study of media discourse production and reception. She has also published articles on applying a critical discursive perspective to research on gender, age, religious and racial identity. Her current research concerns discursive constructions of femininity in the socio-culturally heterogeneous context of post-apartheid South Africa.