Deutsches fest: shame and pride in a situation of symbolic and economic mobilizations

ABSTRACT In this article, we aim to approach language practices that circumscribe language commodification phenomena in a festive event - Deutsches Fest -, which takes place annually in a small town in the Brazilian state of Paraná. We argue that there has been a movement opposite to that suggested by Heller and Duchêne (2012, 2016): from the use of language at the festival initially as a resource or aded commercial value (profit) has resulted in its use as an identity mark (pride). Some residents who used to be ashamed of being “colonos” (settlers), have become, through the festival, proud of the practices that identity them as such. Held annually since 2002, the festival rewrites the history of the residents’ migration, as these descendants of German immigrants who left the state Rio Grande do Sul in the 1960s revise local/regional and national identities (“Germans” versus Brazilian citizens). Our focus is on written and oral language practices - which circulate in newspapers, media commercials, interviews, Facebook posts, TV programs -, and semiotic practices such as the colors of the German flag and clothing, as well as the Festival itself, a 3-day public and collective event celebrated through dance, dinners, barbecues, draft beer, sports competitions and other recreational activities. The results demonstrate that these practices are symbolic and economic mobilizations of language marked by tensions that have raised discourses of pride of belonging to a “local German culture” shared by the residents.摘要 本文旨在探讨巴西巴拉那州（Paraná）某小镇每年举办的德国节（Deutsches Fest）中，框定语言商品化现象的语言实践。我们认为，当前存在一种与赫勒（Heller）和迪谢讷（Duchêne）2012、2016年提出的观点相悖的趋势：该节日中的语言使用最初作为一种可赋予附加商业价值（盈利）的资源，最终演变为一种身份标识（身份自豪感）。曾经以"定居者（colonos）"身份为耻的部分居民，如今通过该节日，对彰显自身这一身份的实践感到自豪。该节日自2002年起每年举办，重新诠释了居民的移民历史：这些在20世纪60年代离开南里奥格兰德州（Rio Grande do Sul）的德国移民后裔，借此重新审视了地方/区域与国家身份（"德国人"与巴西公民的身份博弈）。本研究的关注对象包括书面与口头语言实践——这些实践见于报纸、媒体广告、访谈、Facebook帖子、电视节目中——以及诸如德国国旗配色、服饰等符号实践，同时也关注节日本身这一为期三天的公共集体活动，其庆祝形式涵盖舞蹈、聚餐、烧烤、生啤、体育赛事及其他休闲活动。研究结果表明，这些语言实践兼具符号性与经济性动员属性，其中蕴含的张力催生了居民对共有的"本土德国文化"的归属感话语。