ELL: Cultural production

[Marion Gunn]

>Dear ELLers,
>
>as I see it, cultural production and its promotion have very little to do
>with revitalization and language-shift reversal. They can even backfire:
>"cultural production" can reinforce the minority language users in their
>conviction that the minority language is just that: a medium for the
>expression of THEIR culture.
>So they'll end up using their minority language for studying, preserving and
>eventually disseminating their culture. OK, maybe they'll even reinforce
>their cultural identity.
>In the meantime, they'll of course go on (better: they'll continue) using
>another medium for the expression of everything else EXCEPT their culture:
>where to go shopping, what to shop, what's happening in Kabul, whom to vote
>next time elections come, whom to date next saturday evening, and so on, and
>so forth, and suchlike...



You have got it in one, Mauro (the truth). So why the refusal of others to see?
mg
--
Marion Gunn <mgunn at ucd.ie>
http://listserv.heanet.ie/



>(if they weren't already doing that they wouldn't be minority language
>speakers, by definition).
>If you use a language for poetry-festivals, you feel free to use another for
>science fiction (which is more amusing, let's face it) and the newspaper
>(which is not so amusing, but sometimes is more important).
>
>Is English (everywhere), or a national language (in its respective country),
>an expression of "culture"? Certainly not - or not only; they are an
>expression of life.
>How long can you go on having a language for the expression of your culture,
>and another for the expression of your life? That's the question.
>
>Sorry for the style: English is not my mother tongue.
>Best,
>Mauro
>
>--
>Dept. of African and Arab Studies (DSRAPA)
>Istituto Universitario Orientale,
>I - 80134 Napoli
>Italy
>----



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