Object structure
Title:

From The Magnificent Seven to The Hateful Eight: Labels, lyrics and (group) identity constructionin Western movie songs

Group publication title:

Token

Creator:

Dossena, Marina

Keywords:

historical sociolinguistics ; identity ; Western songs ; film soundtracks ; popular culture

Abstract:

This study, part of a larger project on the role of popular culture in language change and stabilization, takes a historical sociolinguistic approach to a small, specially-compiled corpus of (mostly mid-twentieth-century) songs featuring as theme tunes in Western films, in order to study what linguistic mechanisms are at work for the construction and reinforcement of (group) identities. Such identities pertain both to the protagonists of the films themselves and – albeit indirectly – to their viewers, whose empathy and emotive participation in the fictional events is elicited. Although the strategies on the basis of which these identities are created are historically situated, the patterns they establish may be shown to have had a lasting impact on later phenomena, such as those pertaining to the tourist industry. Typically, the memorability of the songs enables potentially obsolete views to maintain a certain degree of viability even among twenty-first-century audiences: as a result, identities acquire time depth and remain recognizable across decades spanning almost a century.

Place of publishing:

Kielce

Physical description:

s. 155-181

ISSN:

2299-5900

Publisher:

Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jana Kochanowskiego w Kielcach

Date issued:

2021

Identifier:

doi:10.25951/4848

Language:

angielski

Is part of:

Token : A Journal of English Linguistics

Has part:

vol. 12/2021

Type:

tekst

Format:

application/pdf

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