This dissertation is an historically contextualized set of auto/ethnographic case studies and critical analyses of the discursive productions of race, ethnicity, class, and the nation-state. Based on the life histories of culturally and...
moreThis dissertation is an historically contextualized set of auto/ethnographic case studies and critical analyses of the discursive productions of race, ethnicity, class, and the nation-state. Based on the life histories of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals living in the United States and Mexico between the 19 th and 21 st centuries, this research deconstructs binary discourses that police human subjectivity, identity, and conduct according to the laws of the state and the cultural norms of a stratified and racialized society. Microanalyses of the articulations of everyday speech are used to track the movements and migrations of people across borders and boundaries of all kinds, yielding rich evidence of the legacies and presences of macro-level processes of colonization and globalization. The project establishes new ground in the field of cultural studies by offering an unusually nuanced understanding of language that extends our capacity to theorize identity. It does so by bringing linguistic-rather than, typically, literary-forms of analysis to bear on language as a cultural practice. In examining the under-studied "soundscape" of speech, this dissertation brings existing theoretical frameworks from the fields of cultural studies, sociolinguistics, intercultural/international communication, and critical whiteness studies into new configurations and conversation to produce a theory of "acoustic identity." The term serves as a metaphor to capture a set of auditory and visual performance practices, which crosscut relations of power and disrupt hegemonic epistemes of race/ethnicity, social class, language, culture, and the nation. As a theoretical lens, it addresses dialectical tensions among modernist/ postmodernist, essentialist/anti-essentialist, local/global, and micro/macro approaches to analyzing the intersection of language, identity, and power (agency). This research was conducted using a distinctive multi-sited ethnographic method, which historically contextualizes the autoethnographic narratives, ethnographic interviews, and critical analyses of discourse presented in each case study. Ethnographic "thick descriptions" are infused with broad historical overviews of people, places, and events relevant to the case studies, which include monolingual, bilingual, and bidialectal speakers of standard and non-standard varieties of American English, Mexican Spanish, and Navajo. By linking the particulars of each case to a larger set of sociocultural and political-economic forces, this method makes the historical trajectory of certain discourses more transparent and provides a logic with which to understand how legacies of the past-both empowering and debilitating ones-are able to go on living. The effort to produce an integrated archaeology of discourses and narratives of lived experience sets this method apart from other multi-sited ethnographic projects. On the basis of evidence from the case studies, the author argues that: (1) Standard American English (SAE) is not neutral, but rather clearly associated with a professional, educated, "white," US-American, middle class experience; (2) Even more so than grammatical knowledge, the mastery of an accent (phonological repertoire) suggests lived experience, or "native speaker" status, which in turn suggests the "authenticity" of a speaker's identity; (3) Codeswitching can be understood as both a sociocultural credential and liability; and (4) "White/whiteness"-as a social identity-is not monolithic and does not necessarily refer to skin color. It also operates as a metaphor indexing privilege within a complex set of possibilities. A theory of acoustic identity informs contemporary debates and discussions over public and cultural policy in sectors that include education, government, and industry.