Janina Fenigsen
Brandeis University, Anthropology, Department Member
- Language and Power, Creolization, Cultural Heritage, English Creoles, Health Communication, Health Disparities, and 12 moreHeritage Studies, Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage, Romani Studies, Communication, Computer-Mediated Communication, Language and Globalization, Anthropology, Cultural authenticity, Socialization to Emotion, Emotion, politics, performativity, Performativity of Images, and Olas Roma (Gypsy)edit
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Bajan, a Barbadian creole, has no standard orthography. It is written and published in a variety of spellings, and its readership and the generic scope remain limited. The reception of Bajan texts is regimented by the history of... more
Bajan, a Barbadian creole, has no standard orthography. It is written and published in a variety of spellings, and its readership and the generic scope remain limited. The reception of Bajan texts is regimented by the history of representational practices that used non-standard spelling as parody. Because within the cultures of script linguistic prestige depends on the existence of a robust range of written genres, this reception hinders the raising of the prestige of Bajan. The relationship between Bajan spelling and its prestige, then, comes around a full circle: the lack of standardized orthography reinforces the low prestige of Bajan that prevents its emergence. Because the low prestige restricts social mobility of lower-class Bajan speakers, it reinforces social hierarchies. Thus, the interpretive practices of the readers whose stance toward Bajan texts is not determined by spelling are particularly interesting. I consider such alternative readings and propose how to account for them.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This introductory essay defines " emotion pedagogies " by identifying their distinctive qualities—an inclusive embrace of emotions often presented in the form of lists of emotion words to be spoken as part of "... more
This introductory essay defines " emotion pedagogies " by identifying their distinctive qualities—an inclusive embrace of emotions often presented in the form of lists of emotion words to be spoken as part of " I-messages; " treating emotions as teachable skill bundles, like other sets of skills conveyed along the model of formal schooling and thus involving a high degree of curricularization; and finally, the spread of emotion pedagogies as reflections and facilitators of Charles Taylor's " subjective turn, " Foucault's " subjectification, " and a unique self-managed and self-responsible neoliberal selfhood. We introduce each of the articles in this special issue and conclude with reflections on the transformative potential of emotion pedagogies. Tassä artikkelissa " tunnepedagogiikat " (emotion pedagogies) määritellään ilmiöksi, jonka ominaislaatuihin ja tavoitteisiin kuuluvat 1) tunteiden kattava hyväksyminen esimerkiksi tunnesanalistan avustamana, joita voidaan kayttää myös osana " minä-viestejä " ja 2) tunteiden käsittäminen taitoina, joita voi oppia ja opettaa muodollisessa koulutuksessa kuten muitakin taitoja. Tunne-pedagogiikkojen leviamistä ja suosiota käsitellään Charles Taylorin subjektiivisen käänteen ja Foucault'n subjektifikaation näkökulmista sekä heijastumina neoliberaalista tavasta nähdä minus uniikkina ja itsen päätöksistä riippuvaisena. Johdannossa esitellään myös kaikki erikoisnumeron artikkelit, ja lopuksi pohditaan tunnepedagogiikkojen transformatiivista potentiaalia.
Research Interests:
(First two paragraphs) This essay is neither an exhaustive review of the literature on authenticity, authenticities, nor of various other approaches to de-essentializing authenticity. Instead, it focuses on major issues as we see them, in... more
(First two paragraphs) This essay is neither an exhaustive review of the literature on authenticity, authenticities, nor of various other approaches to de-essentializing authenticity. Instead, it focuses on major issues as we see them, in particular on strategies for de-essentializing authenticity and on how the four papers in this special issue embody those strategies. We approach authenticity as a metasemiotic frame and various modes of authentication as multiple framings (compare Turino 1999). Through metasemiotic processes that exploit several semiotically distinct mechanisms, these framings frequently sanction plural and at times conflicting authenticities. Because of the very nature of semiosis conceived in the Peircean tradition as a potentially infinite process where the sign at one order of signification may become an object at another (Silverstein 2003), that process alone may generate multiple standards for authenticity. Using “self-expressions” as an example, if one form stands in an object position to another subsequent form, the later sign’s success at standing for the earlier sign establishes a metasemiotic type – the type here being “authentic self-expression,” performatively entailing other specific self-expressions-as-objects to come. Thus, the use of non-indigenous language, Spanish, may identify text as authentically indigenous (Faudree, this issue) and the use of register invented by a psychotherapist as expressive of real self-hood become the sign of getting in touch with one’s real self (a communal self in the first example and a private individual self in the second). This particular metasemiotic frame – the peculiar authenticity that sets its stamp on modern human existence (Taylor 2007) – is, as this special issue shows, only one of many such possible frames.
Research Interests:
Current Sociology ✦ November 2009 ✦ Vol. 57(6): 925 © International Sociological Association SAGE (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC) DOI: 10.1177/0011392109347117 ... John Corner John Downey Sarah Earle Janina... more
Current Sociology ✦ November 2009 ✦ Vol. 57(6): 925 © International Sociological Association SAGE (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC) DOI: 10.1177/0011392109347117 ... John Corner John Downey Sarah Earle Janina Fenigsen Mike Gane Michael Gardiner Robert Hayden Bettina Hollstein John D Holst John Horrigan Bernard Hubert Roger Hurwitz Claus Jacobs Andrew Jakubowicz Pascal Kao Ravinder Kaur Ray Kiely Clinton Key Vladimir Kultygin Marie Lecomte-Tilouine Jamie Lorimer Ali Akbar Mahdi Paul McIlvenny
Research Interests:
This article attends to the relationship between register choice and face-work within greeting practices in Arawak Hill, Barbados. Drawing on this analysis, the article considers pragmatic functions of greetings and factors that figure in... more
This article attends to the relationship between register choice and face-work within greeting practices in Arawak Hill, Barbados. Drawing on this analysis, the article considers pragmatic functions of greetings and factors that figure in their construction. First, by showing that greeting routines through their intertextual links with past events, relations, and conversations can become a site of ideological contestation, I call into question the universal function of greetings as a "courteous indication of recognition" (Duranti 1997: 66). Next, by attending to contextual and intentional factors that motivate Barbadian register choices and their interpretations, I demonstrate that rhetorical inflections of voice and face-work are not always formally encoded. Without altering their formal properties, Barbadian greetings can serve a subversive, satirical purpose. This need to anchor voicing and its pragmatic meanings in interpretation and intentionality rather than in linguistic markers alone (Bakhtin 1981: 292; see also Woolard 1998), suggests important limits to formal analysis.
Research Interests:
Book Reviews 2 s5 seem to parallel the repeated triadic structure in a famous creation chant dating from 1886: "X [bird] copulated with Y [fish]: there issued forth Z [sun]." While Rongorongo makes only a modest beginning toward the... more
Book Reviews 2 s5 seem to parallel the repeated triadic structure in a famous creation chant dating from 1886: "X [bird] copulated with Y [fish]: there issued forth Z [sun]." While Rongorongo makes only a modest beginning toward the decipher-ment of the Easter Island script no one who pursues this work in the future can proceed without consulting this remarkable work of prodigious scholarship. And scholars interested in other languages and scripts will find this book to be a veritable methodological Rosetta Stone. Documenting the eclectic fortunes of English in 20 British and American former colonies and zones of influence, this collection seeks to explain the spread of English in the contemporary world, and to challenge the perspective identifying that process with imperialist encroachments. The scope is impressive in 21 chapters, introduction, and substantive conclusions, the contributors develop the themes originally charted by Fishman, Cooper, and Conrad (The Spread of English: The Sociology of English as an Additional Language , Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1977), as well as attempt critically to engage more recent considerations of the language shift within a politically and critically informed framework. Two editorial queries have structured the contributions: one seeking to identify changes in the status of English in such domains as education, media, science, commerce, governmental operations , and informal usage; the other inviting the authors to respond to Robert Phillipson's (Linguistic Imperialism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) approach to the spread of English as an imperialistic project. The case studies situated in settings as diverse as Papua New Guinea, Cameroon, Puerto Rico, Quebec, India, Sri Lanka, Mexico, and the European Union are, in my view, the most valuable contribution of the volume. In rich local detail, the studies depict a wealth of scenarios of the globe-wide fortunes of English. Al-Haq and Smadi show that in conservative Islamic circles in Saudi Arabia, the learning of English is considered instrumental in Islamic proselytizing and has become a religious duty. Mazrui and Mazrui detail how the dissimilar fates of English in Kenya and Uganda have stemmed from the synergies between the local inflections of British colonial policy and the distinct indigenous political systems. Tickoo tells the intriguing story of how the officially promoted English became an emblem
This introductory essay defines "emotion pedagogies" by identifying their distinctive qualities-an inclusive embrace of emotions often presented in the form of lists of emotion words to be spoken as part of "I-messages;" treating emotions... more
This introductory essay defines "emotion pedagogies" by identifying their distinctive qualities-an inclusive embrace of emotions often presented in the form of lists of emotion words to be spoken as part of "I-messages;" treating emotions as teachable skill bundles, like other sets of skills conveyed along the model of formal schooling and thus involving a high degree of curricularization; and finally, the spread of emotion pedagogies as reflections and facilitators of Charles Taylor's "subjective turn," Foucault's "subjectification," and a unique self-managed and self-responsible neoliberal selfhood. We introduce each of the articles in this special issue and conclude with reflections on the transformative potential of emotion pedagogies. Tassä artikkelissa "tunnepedagogiikat" (emotion pedagogies) määritellään ilmiöksi, jonka ominaislaatuihin ja tavoitteisiin kuuluvat 1) tunteiden kattava hyväksyminen esimerkiksi tunnesanalistan avustamana, joita voidaan kayttää myös osana "minä-viestejä" ja 2) tunteiden käsittäminen taitoina, joita voi oppia ja opettaa muodollisessa koulutuksessa kuten muitakin taitoja. Tunne-pedagogiikkojen leviamistä ja suosiota käsitellään Charles Taylorin subjektiivisen käänteen ja Foucault'n subjektifikaation näkökulmista sekä heijastumina neoliberaalista tavasta nähdä minus uniikkina ja itsen päätöksistä riippuvaisena. Johdannossa esitellään myös kaikki erikoisnumeron artikkelit, ja lopuksi pohditaan tunnepedagogiikkojen transformatiivista potentiaalia.
]AMES M. WILCE AND ]ANINA fENIGSEN 9. .Mourning and Honor Register in Karelian Lament T his chapter considers the language used in traditional Karelian lament and its counterpart in the Finnish "lament revival" as particularly interesting... more
]AMES M. WILCE AND ]ANINA fENIGSEN 9. .Mourning and Honor Register in Karelian Lament T his chapter considers the language used in traditional Karelian lament and its counterpart in the Finnish "lament revival" as particularly interesting examples of honorific register where honorific forms routinely combine respect and intimacy. This special language, which revivalists call the itkukieli ['lament language'], will be referred to here as the "lament register': This register is realized through the use of a range of devices, of which we will focus on nominal circumlocutions, diminutivization, and frequentativization of the verbs, from which key words in the circumlocutory noun phrases derive. Although expressions of respect and intimacy are by no means unique to lament register, their implications for our thinking about power and solidarity and distance and intimacy have remained undertheorized. We suggest that the lament register provides an excellent case for reexamining these issues. Furthermore, we suggest that in its (discursive and functional) use of the honorific register to address and influence the world of spirits in ways that are tangible to the lamenters, the Karelian (and, in some respects, the neo-Karelian) lament in particular invites a rethinking of conventional _ scholarly perspectives on funerary lament such as to realign the socio-psychologically functional perspectives with the metapragmatic realities of the lamenters. This metapragmatic functionality (Silverstein 1993) straddles and connects two phenomena-the linguistic forms and the understood honoring that they enact, which together constitute Karelian itkuvirzi ['crying song, lament'] or iiinellii itkie ['with-voice to cry: i.e. 'to cry aloud, lament'P and the fament register per se. Moreover, that honoring is realized, as Finnish lament revival-ists say, through pehmennys ['softness/ softening'], a meta pragmatic term that captures deference and intimacy. We set forth the case for regarding the lament register as closely related to "honorific registers': particularly those associated with ritual discourse. In doing so, we rely on local commentary and cross~linguistic/cross-cultural comparison. We underscore what some have noted previously (Irvine 2009)-that the common association between honorifics and power and the dichotomizing of respect and intimacy are oversimplifications. Wilce's study of the so-called 2 "lament revival" in Finland, which draws on Karelian tradition , indicates that the "tenderness" or linguistic "softening': mentioned 187
From Apartheid to Incorporation: The Emergence and Transformations of Modern Language Community in Barbados, West Indies We all speak English, we are very English, we pride ourselves on how well we speak English. Dialect is not even our... more
From Apartheid to Incorporation: The Emergence and Transformations of Modern Language Community in Barbados, West Indies We all speak English, we are very English, we pride ourselves on how well we speak English. Dialect is not even our second language. In some Caribbean territories it is different, just consider St. Lucia, they have that, they call it, "patois," is their second language, but not in Barbados… we have been always very cosmopolitan and civilized and English is our bridge to the civilized world. 1
This introductory essay defines " emotion pedagogies " by identifying their distinctive qualities—an inclusive embrace of emotions often presented in the form of lists of emotion words to be spoken as part of " I-messages; " treating... more
This introductory essay defines " emotion pedagogies " by identifying their distinctive qualities—an inclusive embrace of emotions often presented in the form of lists of emotion words to be spoken as part of " I-messages; " treating emotions as teachable skill bundles, like other sets of skills conveyed along the model of formal schooling and thus involving a high degree of curricularization; and finally, the spread of emotion pedagogies as reflections and facilitators of Charles Taylor's " subjective turn, " Foucault's " subjectification, " and a unique self-managed and self-responsible neoliberal selfhood. We introduce each of the articles in this special issue and conclude with reflections on the transformative potential of emotion pedagogies. Tassä artikkelissa " tunnepedagogiikat " (emotion pedagogies) määritellään ilmiöksi, jonka ominaislaatuihin ja tavoitteisiin kuuluvat 1) tunteiden kattava hyväksyminen esimerkiksi tunnesanalistan avustamana, joita voidaan kayttää myös osana " minä-viestejä " ja 2) tunteiden käsittäminen taitoina, joita voi oppia ja opettaa muodollisessa koulutuksessa kuten muitakin taitoja. Tunne-pedagogiikkojen leviamistä ja suosiota käsitellään Charles Taylorin subjektiivisen käänteen ja Foucault'n subjektifikaation näkökulmista sekä heijastumina neoliberaalista tavasta nähdä minus uniikkina ja itsen päätöksistä riippuvaisena. Johdannossa esitellään myös kaikki erikoisnumeron artikkelit, ja lopuksi pohditaan tunnepedagogiikkojen transformatiivista potentiaalia.
Research Interests:
Abstract Charles Taylor has called ours an “Age of Authenticity”, and authenticity is a popular object of scholarly examination, not least in anthropology. A considerable number of scholars have even proposed models for multiple... more
Abstract
Charles Taylor has called ours an “Age of Authenticity”, and authenticity is a popular object of scholarly examination, not least in anthropology. A considerable number of scholars have even proposed models for multiple “authenticities”. None, however, has brought a modified Peircean theoretical tool-kit together with ethnographic evidence that “the natives know” that there are many authenticities. This article seeks to fill that gap. Working with Peirce’s model of the sign and with postmodern theories of originals and replicas, we draw on Wilce’s Finnish fieldwork to analyze what we consider clear evidence of four authenticities arising in recent debates surrounding traditional Karelian lament and particularly highly organized attempts in Finland to “revive” the practice. We call performances arising out of the revival “neolaments”. We treat authenticities as strictly relational, metasemiotic, and ideological phenomena. Authenticities that appear salient to actors on the revivalist scene may involve the following relationships : that between any neolament performance and any particular Karelian lament performances, with the question being whether the former is adequately “traditional” (i.e. relationship between replica and original); between a particular lament performance and the generic essence of that which makes lament a lament (i.e. token and type); between a lament performance and emotion – a relationship ideologically construed as “expressive” (i.e. sign and object); and finally, a relationship between some sort of dynamic interpretant of particular old Karelian laments (lament1) and new dynamic interpretants generated in and through new lament performances (lament2 or habitual participation in such performance) that in some way replicates the old dynamical interpretant (interpretant1 and interpretant2).
Résumé
Charles Taylor a baptisé notre époque “l’Âge de l’Authenticité”. Certes, l’authenticité est un sujet populaire dans la recherche académique, surtout en anthropologie. Un nombre important de chercheurs sont allés jusqu’à proposer des modèles “d’authenticités multiples”. Aucun, cependant, n’a offert jusqu’à présent une “boîte à outils théorique peircéenne modifiée” qui mettrait en évidence le fait que les “autochtones savent” qu’il existe de nombreuses authenticités. Le présent article vise à combler cette lacune.
En combinant le modèle sémiotique de Peirce avec les théories postmodernes sur les originaux et les copies, nous nous sommes appuyés sur le travail mené sur le terrain en Finlande par Wilce pour analyser ce qui nous semble être une évidence, à savoir que quatre formes d’authenticités sont présentes dans les récents débats sur la lamentation carélienne et, en particulier, dans les tentatives entreprises en Finlande pour “faire revivre” cette pratique. Nous appelons “néolamentations” les expressions issues de ce renouveau et traitons les questions d’authenticité qu’elles suscitent comme des phénomènes strictement relationnels, metasémiotiques et idéologiques. Les authenticités qui paraissent saillantes aux acteurs de la scène revivaliste font émerger les rapports suivants : 1) le rapport entre l’usage de la néolamentation et celui de toute autre forme de lamentation carélienne, dans le but de déterminer si la première est adéquatement “traditionnelle” (soit : la relation entre la copie et l’original); 2) le rapport entre la performance d’une lamentation et l’essence même qui lui octroie son identité de lamentation (soit : la relation du token et du type); 3) le rapport entre performance et émotion – une relation idéologiquement interprétée comme ‘expressive’ (soit : la relation du signe à son objet); 4) enfin, le rapport entre une sorte d’interprétant dynamique d’anciennes lamentations caréliennes (lamentation1) et des interprétants dynamiques nouveaux produits par des performances nouvelles de la lamentation (lamentation2 ou participation habituelle dans pareilles performances) et qui, d’une certaine manière, visent la reproduction de l’interprétant dynamique ancien (soit : la relation entre un interprétant1 et interprétant2).
Charles Taylor has called ours an “Age of Authenticity”, and authenticity is a popular object of scholarly examination, not least in anthropology. A considerable number of scholars have even proposed models for multiple “authenticities”. None, however, has brought a modified Peircean theoretical tool-kit together with ethnographic evidence that “the natives know” that there are many authenticities. This article seeks to fill that gap. Working with Peirce’s model of the sign and with postmodern theories of originals and replicas, we draw on Wilce’s Finnish fieldwork to analyze what we consider clear evidence of four authenticities arising in recent debates surrounding traditional Karelian lament and particularly highly organized attempts in Finland to “revive” the practice. We call performances arising out of the revival “neolaments”. We treat authenticities as strictly relational, metasemiotic, and ideological phenomena. Authenticities that appear salient to actors on the revivalist scene may involve the following relationships : that between any neolament performance and any particular Karelian lament performances, with the question being whether the former is adequately “traditional” (i.e. relationship between replica and original); between a particular lament performance and the generic essence of that which makes lament a lament (i.e. token and type); between a lament performance and emotion – a relationship ideologically construed as “expressive” (i.e. sign and object); and finally, a relationship between some sort of dynamic interpretant of particular old Karelian laments (lament1) and new dynamic interpretants generated in and through new lament performances (lament2 or habitual participation in such performance) that in some way replicates the old dynamical interpretant (interpretant1 and interpretant2).
Résumé
Charles Taylor a baptisé notre époque “l’Âge de l’Authenticité”. Certes, l’authenticité est un sujet populaire dans la recherche académique, surtout en anthropologie. Un nombre important de chercheurs sont allés jusqu’à proposer des modèles “d’authenticités multiples”. Aucun, cependant, n’a offert jusqu’à présent une “boîte à outils théorique peircéenne modifiée” qui mettrait en évidence le fait que les “autochtones savent” qu’il existe de nombreuses authenticités. Le présent article vise à combler cette lacune.
En combinant le modèle sémiotique de Peirce avec les théories postmodernes sur les originaux et les copies, nous nous sommes appuyés sur le travail mené sur le terrain en Finlande par Wilce pour analyser ce qui nous semble être une évidence, à savoir que quatre formes d’authenticités sont présentes dans les récents débats sur la lamentation carélienne et, en particulier, dans les tentatives entreprises en Finlande pour “faire revivre” cette pratique. Nous appelons “néolamentations” les expressions issues de ce renouveau et traitons les questions d’authenticité qu’elles suscitent comme des phénomènes strictement relationnels, metasémiotiques et idéologiques. Les authenticités qui paraissent saillantes aux acteurs de la scène revivaliste font émerger les rapports suivants : 1) le rapport entre l’usage de la néolamentation et celui de toute autre forme de lamentation carélienne, dans le but de déterminer si la première est adéquatement “traditionnelle” (soit : la relation entre la copie et l’original); 2) le rapport entre la performance d’une lamentation et l’essence même qui lui octroie son identité de lamentation (soit : la relation du token et du type); 3) le rapport entre performance et émotion – une relation idéologiquement interprétée comme ‘expressive’ (soit : la relation du signe à son objet); 4) enfin, le rapport entre une sorte d’interprétant dynamique d’anciennes lamentations caréliennes (lamentation1) et des interprétants dynamiques nouveaux produits par des performances nouvelles de la lamentation (lamentation2 ou participation habituelle dans pareilles performances) et qui, d’une certaine manière, visent la reproduction de l’interprétant dynamique ancien (soit : la relation entre un interprétant1 et interprétant2).
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Part 1, 'Speech community and communicative competence', traces the development of the concept from the speech community approached as clearly defined and bounded to the emphasis on its processual aspects. The section... more
Part 1, 'Speech community and communicative competence', traces the development of the concept from the speech community approached as clearly defined and bounded to the emphasis on its processual aspects. The section nicely balances the classics (Gumperz, Hymes) and ...
Pragmatics, Vol 13, No 4 (2003). eLanguage; Home; About; Log In; Register; Search; Current; Archives; Home > Vol 13, No 4 (2003) > Fenigsen. Introduction. Janina Fenigsen. Abstract. Full Text: PDF.