Linguistic landscapes as pornoheterotopias

(De)regulating gender and sexuality in the public toilet

Bibliographic Data

ID21235884
AuthorsRafael de Vasconcelos Barboza (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro), R Borba (0000-0003-4348-1812, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro)
Year2018
Volume4
Issue3
Pages257-277
Publication date2018-11-26
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistic Landscape An international journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2214-9953 • E-ISSN: 2214-9961
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/ll.18005.vas
OpenAlexW2902377964
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited18

Drawing on multimodal analysis of graffiti in male public restrooms at the Faculdade de Letras of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, this paper investigates how notions of place and gendered/sexualized subjects are discursively (re)constructed in interactions with the materiality and historicity of the public realm. The analysis focuses on the indexicalities of public signage and the ways they (in)form understandings of and access to certain spaces. By investigating the fragmented history of entextualizations of these toilet graffiti as well as the indexicalities of their lexical, graphic, and co(n)textual aspects, we argue that places can be queered since they are semiotically constructed and discursively performed . The paper illustrates how static assumptions about place, gender, and sexuality can be disrupted and ressignified which highlights the pornoheterotopic character of these public restrooms in which semiotic processes that (de)regulate gender and sexual dissidence are emplaced

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Architectural engineering · Art · Graffiti · Human sexuality · Linguistics · Metalanguage · Political science · Public space · Realm · Semiotics · Signage · Sociology · Visual arts · Engineering · Gender Studies · History · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Public Spaces through Art · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism

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