Introduction

[Vershawn Ashanti Young]

Barney,

Your research sounds fascinating.  I recently took a course in ethnography
where I was introduced to cultures that put on a 'good' face in certain speech
situations.  The  Hispanic and Italian cultures were highlighted in the
course, probably because the professor who taught the course, Marcia Farr,
does work with Mexican and Mexican American communities.  Anyway, I found her
article on the verbal performances fascinating.  And also the dissertation of
one of her student's, Gloria Nardini, _Che Bella Figura!  The Power of
Performance in an Italian Ladies' Club in Chicago_  discusses how wives whose
husbands belong to a club put on a certain face and enter into a type of
verbal performance that is associated with the Italian culture's way of
performing in public.

I realize from your description that your research centeres around the
political aspects of the Indian culture, but it would also be interesting for
me to know whether or not there is a reciprocal influential relationship that
exists between the social (and/or even private) and the political.  How does
this relatively new speech genre effect or is effected by everyday speech?
And is this represented in the literature of the country?

Vershawn Ashanti Young
PhD Candidate/Literature
University of Illinois at Chicago
773-548-6564

In a message dated 1/8/99 8:40:26 AM Central Standard Time,
johnbate at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU writes:

<< My name is Barney Bate.  I am currently finishing a dissertation in
 Anthropology at the University of Chicago.  I did my field work in Madurai,
 Tamilnadu (S.India) on political oratory and associated modes of cultural
 production (public meetings, rallies, stages, public address systems,
 posters, etc.).  Politicians approximate a literary speech genre called
 'beautiful' or 'fine Tamil' which is distinct from most forms of ordinary
 speech (or 'vulgar Tamil').  I basically try to suggest why this genre
 emerged within the last 50 years or so (despite sounding as though it were
 spoken by kings and gods of yore), and what it means to producers and
 consumers of this form of Tamil that politicians speak this way.

 Other recent concerns/projects involve: linguistic ideologies of 'rhetoric'
 (as historically and culturally situated notions of language use and
 function); different models of 'tropes,' or different ideologies of meaning
 transformation in different languages;  linguistic biography; the
 unimaginable consequenses of colonial grammars (in, say, 20th century
 nationalist movements,etc.); long-term transformations of broader political
 communicative behavior.

 I am happy that you all have put this list together.  I look forward to
 future discussion.

 Barney
 _____________________________
 Bernard Bate
 5311 S. Woodlawn, #1
 Chicago, IL 60615

 h 773.684.0991
  >>