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Article published In: Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 9:2 (2023) ► pp.113–132

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Manoeuvres of dissent in landscapes of annexation

 | Stockholm University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Stockholm University.

Published online: 19 December 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.22012.vol
Abstract
Building on semiotic landscapes research, the present paper seeks to expand the existing field with its exploration of protest through the lens of turbulence (Stroud, Christopher. (2015a). Afterword: Turbulent deflections. In Christopher Stroud & Mastin Prinsloo (eds.), Language, Literacy and Diversity: Moving Words, 206–16. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). While making visible the fabric of resistance in semiotic landscapes of annexed Crimea, the ethnographic engagement with the interactional and visual data provides insights into small-scale performative acts of protest. It shows that protest evolves as a manoeuvring act across a minefield of possibilities and constraints and manifests itself materially and discursively. More specifically, acts of protest emerge out of an agential intra-action of humans and non-humans, thus revealing the necessity of synergies between people and objects. Such intra-actions create interpretative ambiguity. Protestors deliberately play on this ambiguity to simultaneously conceal and to visibilise dissent. Jointly achieved performative acts of protest, if only temporary, create turbulence and unsettle the status of Crimea as a ‘Russian’ space, thus disturbing the status quo in the area.
Анотація
Спираючись на вивчення семіотичних ландшафтів, ця стаття прагне розширити існуючi дослідження протесту крізь призму турбулентності (Stroud, Christopher. (2015a). Afterword: Turbulent deflections. In Christopher Stroud & Mastin Prinsloo (eds.), Language, Literacy and Diversity: Moving Words, 206–16. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Роблячи видимою структуру спротиву в семіотичних ландшафтах анексованого Криму, етнографічний аналіз інтеракційних і візуальних даних дає змогу зрозуміти невеликі перформативні акти спротиву. Це показує, що протест розвивається як акт маневрування через мінне поле можливостей і обмежень і проявляється матеріально та дискурсивно. А саме, акти протесту виникають із внутрішньої взаємодії людських та матеріальних чинників, таким чином виявляючи необхідність синергії між людьми та об’єктами. Такі акти спротиву створюють неоднозначність тлумачення. Протестувальники навмисно грають на цій багатозначності, щоб одночасно приховати та проявити протест. Загалом, спільні перформативні акти протесту, хоча й тимчасовo, створюють турбулентність, заперечуючи статус Криму як «російського» простору, таким чином ставлячи під сумнів уявний статус-кво в регіоні.
Article outline
  • 1.Protest without a wisp of smoke
  • 2.Protest Semiosis: bodies and objects talk
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1When the mundane is made political
    • 3.2People exposed to objects
    • 3.3A head wreath: Downgrading weapons to aesthetics
    • 3.4Certificate of madness to excuse difference
    • 3.5Cars masking people
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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