Högre seminarium - Marie Maegaard

Skandinavistika invites you to a lecture on

”Dialect performance in the production of authenticity in Bornholm tourism, food production and high-end restaurants.”

Given by Marie Maegaard from the University of Copenhagen

December 8th 2015
16.15 - 17.45
Jakobi  2 – 114
The lecture will be given in English

Marie has sent us an abstract of her talk:

„Throughout the last century an intense linguistic standardization process has taken place in Denmark leading to the dedialectalization of language use in almost all areas (Coupland & Kristiansen 2011, Maegaard et al. 2013, Pedersen 2003). However, while globalization leads to dialect levelling, at the same time it produces ideological difference between imagined varieties (Johnstone 2010).

The perceived difference between “Danish” and “Bornholmian” is central to the construction of value for several local Bornholm food producers and for other food entrepreneurs marketing Bornholmian products.

By drawing on two case studies, I will show how elements of traditional Bornholm dialect are used in the construction of the authentic Bornholm experience to consumers perceived as “outsiders”. The first case study concerns a winery at Bornholm. The winegrower offers guided tours to tourists, and these tours are framed as a Bornholm experience by his use of traditional Bornholm dialect (Maegaard, Monka & Scheuer 2014). Most importantly, his use of dialect works to both include and exclude tourists in the event, creating a typical tourist experience (Jaworski and Thurlow 2010).

The second case is a study of two high-end Bornholm restaurants in Copenhagen (Karrebæk & Maegaard forthc.). Here, Bornholm dialect is also used strategically, for instance in the speech of the waiters or as written dialect on the menu. In the paper I will focus on the making of a “Bornholmian cocktail” in one of the restaurants. The cocktail is served in glasses which have different Bornholmian words engraved. I will analyze the process leading to this decision, and I will argue that in this case, it is not only a construction of authenticity that is taking place. Rather it is a staged performance (Bell & Gibson 2011) of bornholmness, leading to a complex guest experience of both authenticity and inauthenticity at the same time.”

Marie Maegaard works as associate professor at the Department of Nordic Research and LANCHART Centre (Centre for Studying Language Change in Real Time) at the University of Copenhagen. She does research in sociolinguistics from many different angles and with different approaches, both quantitative and qualitative. Her current fields of research include:

• language change
• language attitudes and language ideology
• phonetic variation in Danish
• dialect and globalisation
• „linguistic commodification“
• language and authenticity
• language, gender and sexuality
• dialect use on Bornholm
• Danish/English-language families

You can read more about her research as well as about LANCHART and Department of Nordic Research here: 

http://lanchart.hum.ku.dk/staff_scan/?pure=en%2Fpersons%2Fmarie-maegaard%2801e25480-6ef7-44b4-80d8-19b65aa253f4%29%2Fpublications.html

The lecture is held as part of the series of Higher Nordic Seminar and Meet Modern Scandinavia seminars and events at Skandinavistika.

Everybody is welcome!