The discursive chronotopes of waste: Temporal laminations and linguistic hauntings
Publisher DOI
Abstract
This paper presents two case-study examples of the discursive chronotopes by which
domestic waste is organized as a linguistic, spatial, and temporal configuration.
Marked by their liminality and temporal laminations, curbside garbage collection and
secondhand/thrift shops are major sociomaterial practices in Switzerland. The three
discursive chronotopes we address in these contexts are those concerned with
regulation, repression, and (re)valuation. By focusing on the temporalities of waste,
we complicate how linguistic landscape research typically conceives of, and
approaches, both space and language. The language of waste is not always visible or
even expressed. Indeed, waste is often deliberately rendered invisible – under the cover
of darkness, behind closed doors, sent elsewhere – and thereby functions as an act of
discursive suppression. For these reasons, we endorse a hauntological approach to
linguistic landscapes. (Waste, linguistic landscape, discursive chronotope, temporal
lamination, hauntology)
domestic waste is organized as a linguistic, spatial, and temporal configuration.
Marked by their liminality and temporal laminations, curbside garbage collection and
secondhand/thrift shops are major sociomaterial practices in Switzerland. The three
discursive chronotopes we address in these contexts are those concerned with
regulation, repression, and (re)valuation. By focusing on the temporalities of waste,
we complicate how linguistic landscape research typically conceives of, and
approaches, both space and language. The language of waste is not always visible or
even expressed. Indeed, waste is often deliberately rendered invisible – under the cover
of darkness, behind closed doors, sent elsewhere – and thereby functions as an act of
discursive suppression. For these reasons, we endorse a hauntological approach to
linguistic landscapes. (Waste, linguistic landscape, discursive chronotope, temporal
lamination, hauntology)
Date Issued
2022
Publication Type
Article
Language(s)
en
Additional Credits
Journal
Language in society
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISSN
0047-4045
Access(Rights)
restricted