Judith T. Irvine
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195331646
- eISBN:
- 9780199867974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331646.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
How can materials from a 19th-century archive shed light on a concept of “stance” that might be useful in sociolinguistic research? Although “stance” has many intellectual genealogies, its ...
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How can materials from a 19th-century archive shed light on a concept of “stance” that might be useful in sociolinguistic research? Although “stance” has many intellectual genealogies, its application in sociolinguistics focuses mainly on a speaker's acts of self-positioning vis-à-vis interlocutors and objects in discourse, especially in face-to-face interaction. This chapter concerns a more distant time and place, and considers how those distances, and the multiple mediations that intervene between the original events and interpretations of them today, might contribute to ideas about stance. The historical case involves a dispute among missionaries in Onitsha (a town in eastern Nigeria) that erupted in violence in October 1868. A flurry of letters ensued, with much fault-finding, local rushing about, appeals to authorities (mission and Onitshan), and consequences for the mission personnel. The drama's central figure, John Christian Taylor, is known today mainly for his early descriptions of life in Onitsha and his work on Igbo linguistics—work that contributed, if indirectly, to his troubles in the aftermath of the quarrel. The chapter concludes that “stance” can usefully integrate many scales of analysis, provided that explanations do not lose sight of the unintentional, the coconstructed, and the nonreferential aspects of discourse.Less
How can materials from a 19th-century archive shed light on a concept of “stance” that might be useful in sociolinguistic research? Although “stance” has many intellectual genealogies, its application in sociolinguistics focuses mainly on a speaker's acts of self-positioning vis-à-vis interlocutors and objects in discourse, especially in face-to-face interaction. This chapter concerns a more distant time and place, and considers how those distances, and the multiple mediations that intervene between the original events and interpretations of them today, might contribute to ideas about stance. The historical case involves a dispute among missionaries in Onitsha (a town in eastern Nigeria) that erupted in violence in October 1868. A flurry of letters ensued, with much fault-finding, local rushing about, appeals to authorities (mission and Onitshan), and consequences for the mission personnel. The drama's central figure, John Christian Taylor, is known today mainly for his early descriptions of life in Onitsha and his work on Igbo linguistics—work that contributed, if indirectly, to his troubles in the aftermath of the quarrel. The chapter concludes that “stance” can usefully integrate many scales of analysis, provided that explanations do not lose sight of the unintentional, the coconstructed, and the nonreferential aspects of discourse.
Jonathan Haynes
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226387819
- eISBN:
- 9780226388007
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226388007.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
Major shifts in Nollywood shortly after 2000 included greatly increased power for the marketers, a shift of filmmaking and financing to the Igbo cities of Asaba, Enugu, and Onitsha, a crisis of ...
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Major shifts in Nollywood shortly after 2000 included greatly increased power for the marketers, a shift of filmmaking and financing to the Igbo cities of Asaba, Enugu, and Onitsha, a crisis of overproduction, and comedy emerging as a prominent commercial genre. The figure of the rogue or trickster is central in the Nigerian comic tradition, as is Pidgin, a contact language associated with unofficial laughter, truth-telling, the lower classes, and what Bakhtin called dialogism and the grotesque. Unlike other Nigerian film genres, comedy is weakly associated with a specific location or plot form, often parodying or sharing themes with other genres.. Some films by Nkem Owoh, the greatest Nollywood comic actor, have village settings and perspectives. Issues that cause stress in other genres are treated with confidence in the resilience of communities, but difficulties in the politics of development are presented with sober clarity and complicity.Less
Major shifts in Nollywood shortly after 2000 included greatly increased power for the marketers, a shift of filmmaking and financing to the Igbo cities of Asaba, Enugu, and Onitsha, a crisis of overproduction, and comedy emerging as a prominent commercial genre. The figure of the rogue or trickster is central in the Nigerian comic tradition, as is Pidgin, a contact language associated with unofficial laughter, truth-telling, the lower classes, and what Bakhtin called dialogism and the grotesque. Unlike other Nigerian film genres, comedy is weakly associated with a specific location or plot form, often parodying or sharing themes with other genres.. Some films by Nkem Owoh, the greatest Nollywood comic actor, have village settings and perspectives. Issues that cause stress in other genres are treated with confidence in the resilience of communities, but difficulties in the politics of development are presented with sober clarity and complicity.
