In:The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging: Perspectives from the margins
Edited by Leonie Cornips and Vincent A. de Rooij
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 45] 2018
► pp. 149–176
Chapter 8Peripheral performances
The languagecultural practices of Dutch-Limburgian world star André Rieu
Published online: 7 March 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.45.08ste
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.45.08ste
Abstract
This contribution focusses on the languagecultural politics played out in performances of André Rieu, the World’s King of the Waltz. At stake are stereotypical oppositions made within the Netherlands between ‘the nation’s center’ (‘Holland’) and the ‘peripheral’ province of Limburg. During his concerts in the Limburgian capital Maastricht, Rieu’s hometown, Rieu negates the Hollanders-centered, taken-for-granted, perspective that foregrounds Standard Dutch and its speakers as the normative neutral. Presenting himself as a global-cum-local performer alternating local language with English, Rieu marginalizes Standard Dutch as irrelevant, in the Dutch language-scape usually the position of dialects. Rieu’s languagecultural political messages are persuasive because of his strategic, jocular use of various linguistic and cultural resources, all to highlight his belonging to Maastricht.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Going global
- Performing the periphery
- The King and his Jester
- Conclusion
Notes References
References (26)
Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Babcock, B. 1975. A tolerated margin of mess: A trickster and his tales reconsidered. Journal of the Folklore Institute 11(3): 147–186.
Bauman, R. 2000. Language, identity, performance. Pragmatics 10(1): 1–5.
Baumann, G. 1992. Ritual implicates ‘others’: Rereading Durkheim in a plural society. In Understanding rituals, D. de Coppet (ed.), 97–116. London: Routledge.
Bell, A. & Gibson A. 2011. Staging language: An introduction to the sociolinguistics of performance. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(5): 555–572.
Blok, A. 1976. Wittgenstein en Elias. Een methodologische richtlijn voor de antropologie. Amsterdam: Atheneum, Polak.
Cornips, L., de Rooij, V. & Stengs, I. 2012. Carnavalesk taalgebruik en de constructive van lokale identiteiten. Een pleidooi voor taalcultuur als onderzoeksveld. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 1(1): 15–40.
Cornips, L., De Rooij, V., Stengs, I., & Thissen, L. 2016. Dialect and local media: Reproducing the multi-dialectal hierarchical space in Limburg (the Netherlands). In Style, Media and Language Ideologies, J. Thøgersen, N. Coupland & J. Mortensen (eds.), 189–216. Oslo: Novus Press.
Driessen, G. 2006. Ontwikkelingen in het gebruik van streektalen en dialecten in de periode 1995–2003. Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen 75(1): 103–113.
Fabian, J. 1996. Moments of Freedom. Anthropology and Popular Culture. Charlottesville VA: University of Virginia Press.
Grondelaers, S., van Hout, R. & Steegs, M. 2010. Evaluating regional accent variation in Standard Dutch. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 29(1): 101–116.
Jaffe, A. 2000. Comic performance and the articulation of hybrid identity. Pragmatics 10(1): 39–59.
2009. Sociolinguistic diversity in mainstream media. Authenticity, authority and processes of mediation and mediatization. Journal of Language and Politics 10(4): 562–586.
Knotter, A. 2009. Limburg bestaat niet. Paradoxen van een sterke identiteit. In Dit is Limburg. Opstellen over de Limburgse identiteit, A. Knotter (ed.), 263–277. Zwolle: Waanders.
Meyer B. & M. van de Port (eds.). 2018. Sense and Essence. Aesthetics of Persuasion in Heritage Politics. Oxford: Berghahn
Stengs I. 2017. Der weltbeste Walzerkönig Zur medialen Erzeugung von Näheund Intimität mit André Rieu. Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft 16: 79–88.
Thissen, L. & Cornips, L. 2015[2014]. Sjtómme Limburger met een zachte G. Jaarboek van de Vereniging voor Limburgse Dialect- en Naamkunde 17: 294–299.