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Stylizing Dialects and Restructuring the Nation of Nepal in Stand-Up Comedy

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Published/Copyright: October 17, 2014

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of a Nepali comedian’s dialect stylization in a stand-up comedy show performed for the diasporic Nepali community in Bochum, Germany. The analysis shows that through creative deployment of diverse linguistic practices of Nepali speakers, the comedian, Manoj Gajurel, engages in important identity work both in the narrating and in the narrated world of the comedy act. In the narrating world, he discursively constructs a shared identity with the audience as “we Nepalis” who are comfortable in celebrating – but also finding humor in – the linguistic diversity in Nepal. Drawing on contemporary political discourse in Nepal, they imagine a new federal Nepal through Gajurel’s stylization and the audience’s affiliative responses respectively. In the narrated world, the comedian constructs various stereotypical identities of Nepali dialect speakers using multiple speaker footings and revoicings. Although the accuracy of representation can be contested, stylized performances such as this give a symbolic and material value to the traditionally denigrated dialects and serve as a resource for language users to construct and represent a different range of identities in the age of late modernity.

Acknowledgements

I would like to sincerely acknowledge Elaine Chun, Gavin Furukawa, Christina Higgins, Gavin Lamb, Anna Stirr, Mónica Vidal and two anonymous reviewers who have provided important feedback during different phases of this manuscript preparation.

Transcription symbols

:

Colon indicates prolongation of the immediate prior sound. Multiple colons indicate a more prolonged sound.

A dash indicates a cut-off.

?

A question indicates rising intonation.

.

A period indicates a stopping fall in tone.

↓↑

Arrows indicate marked shifts into higher or lower pitch in the utterance-part immediately following the arrow.

WORD

Upper case indicates loud sounds relative to the surrounding talk.

°word°

Fragments bracketed by degree signs are relatively quieter than the surrounding talk.

<word >

right/left carets bracketing a fragment indicate that the bracketed talk is noticeably slower than the surrounding talk.

(())

A description enclosed in double parentheses indicates a non-verbal activity.

Abbreviations in transcripts

COND

conditional

DPRT

discourse particle

EMP

emphatic particle

ERG

ergative marker

HON

honorific marker

NEG

negative marker

POSS

possessive marker

PRS

present tense

PROG

progressive marker

PST

past tense

Q

question marker

QUOT

quotative marker

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Published Online: 2014-10-17
Published in Print: 2015-3-1

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