The paper explores, with reference to the notion of ‘positioning’ used by Pavlenko (2001, 2007), how young adults use a specific Bangla word ‘khaet’ (hick) to construct a sense of ‘others’ and position themselves... [ view full abstract ]
The paper explores, with reference to the notion of ‘positioning’ used by Pavlenko (2001, 2007), how young adults use a specific Bangla word ‘khaet’ (hick) to construct a sense of ‘others’ and position themselves in their social landscape.
The data are drawn from a three-month long ethnographic research project in a university in Bangladesh which included observations, casual face-to-face conversations, virtual conversations on Facebook, interviews, and focus-group discussions.
Based on the analysis, the paper reveals that individual interpretation and use of ‘khaet’ is intricately intertwined with the historical, political, and ideological roles of languages, and individual life trajectories, particularly educational, linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds, nature of exposure to linguistic and cultural resources, and mobility in space – be it rural, urban, or virtual. These factors work as reference points for individuals’ sense of association and disassociation with ‘khaet’ which in turn influences how they perceive and position themselves and others. For example, they accentuate their urban-centric upbringing, differentiate themselves from those recently-arrived from provincial towns and rural areas based on their perception of ‘khaet’. However, their perception and interpretation of the word seem highly polarised and stereotyped, reflecting a sense of binary distinction: for example, civilised vs. uncultured; obscure rural vs. high class; powerful vs. weak; fast vs. hick; Eastern vs. Western; and local vs. global. Based on these polarised understanding of others, they construct their sense of own self. The binary polarisation is vital to their self-projection and identity construction: on the one hand, it is ontological to the way they work out sameness and difference in their negotiation of identity; and on the other hand, it allows them opportunities of discursive reconstruction of their own sense of self. The paper concludes that even though the notion of ‘positioning’ apparently reflects, sustains, and nurtures collective normativity of the society, it is also significantly important in understanding individual agency in working out ways of these normative social structures and perceptions, exclusion, and ‘othering’. Thus the paper problematises the collective cultural representation of identity with common traits, preferences, and practices.
