Heroic landscapes and the linguistic reconstitution of the self

Abstract

ABSTRACT This case study draws on evidence gathered in a minority setting in north-eastern Italy where Ladin, the heritage language, is central to the construction of past and present narratives of heroism and resistance. The article aims to contribute to the development of new debates within this journal as facilitated by different disciplinary perspectives, and in line with recent discussions about the status of language as heritage, which question the problematic UNESCO definition of language as a vehicle to intangible cultural heritage. Adopting a Linguistic Landscape approach, which focuses on material aspects of language and spatial dimensions of identity-building, the article discusses local micro-narratives of heroism which are in turn encompassed in macro-narratives of major events with global repercussions, such as World War 1. Evidence of the symbiotic relationship between the natural landscape and these events is represented by linguistic resources interacting with the setting to render it a rich example of history being inscribed in geography, and of landscape as monument. The discussion foregrounds the centrality of the heritage language in the performance of heroism, and its role in engendering interconnections between self-perception, aesthetics and ethics.