Emilia Di Martino - Celebrity Accents and Public Identity Construction: Analyzing Geordie Stylizations

Celebrity Accents and Public Identity Construction is a short-focused research work which builds on the renovated interest on the nexus between accent-identity-prestige-prejudice, offering an analysis of celebrities use of the Geordie variety in a series of public performances as a reflection instrument for scholars, but also for neophyte readers with an interest in Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics, Celebrity Studies, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and Gender Studies. Of interest are the individual instances of Geordieness performed on specific occasions, i.e. the ways in which people construct their unique and constantly evolving language repertoires sometimes appropriating some, other times distancing themselves from, linguistic traits that would characterize them as members of specific communities in other peoples perceptions. The material investigated is provided by the artistic world: engaging with the arts and culture, and in particular with music, is not just a solitary event, but also a participatory one which many people feel is worthwhile sharing through ordinary conversation and interaction via social networks every day.

Emilia Di Martino is Associate Professor of English Linguistics at Universit Suor Orsola Benincasa, Italy. She is interested in a wide variety of topics, mostly focusing on the nexus amongst identity, language and power. She has published extensively, is a regular reviewer and sits on the advisory panel for a series of national and international journals and book series.

A timely study of the creation and dissemination of the characterological figure of the Geordie in the 21st century. It interweaves clear exposition of theories of enregisterment and indexicality with well-chosen extracts of high performance of Geordieness to present an engaging account. An important contribution to third-wave sociolinguistics, it will inspire research into performances of other regional identities.

Joan C. Beal, University of Sheffield, UK.

This volume offers a novel and fascinating perspective on the language and culture of Northeast England. Di Martino shows in meticulous detail how icons such as Cheryl Cole and Sting use stylistic variation in media contexts. Essential reading for anyone wishing to stay abreast of the latest developments in sociolinguistics.

Michael Pearce, University of Sunderland, UK.

First published 2019

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ISBN: 978-0-367-22680-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-27638-5 (ebk)

My loving thanks go to my beloved children, Giuliana May and Davide Miles, who have forgiven absences of mind (and body) over the last few years and lovingly supported me in this endeavor throughout; to Joan Beal, who patiently read a draft of this volume and greatly impacted the final result with her valuable suggestions; to Suzanne Romaine, who is always there, across the miles, with her precious advice and support; to Mike Pearce, for his interest, advice and support; to Adrian Bedford, who was constantly available with precious advice and opinion on both language and content issues; to Nancy Cruse, Ruth Kerr and Imma Morin, who patiently helped in the redaction and/or revision of transcripts; to Giuseppina Scotto di Carlo, who helped proofread the bibliography; to Alessandro Arena, who is always ready to share his profound knowledge of Freud and Lacan; to Lee Jones, who granted permission to reproduce his beautiful Weeping Angel of the North.

I lived in and around Newcastle between 1971 and 2001 and, during that period, observed how awareness and commodification of the Geordie dialect increased both within and beyond the Toon. At first, there were just locally published booklets like Larn Yersel Geordie, and local broadcasts, along with nationally aired programmes such as When the Boat Comes In, the latter spreading awareness of Geordie. In the 1990s, artefacts such as mugs and fridge magnets started appearing on the market, but by the late 1990s and early 2000s, the internet was facilitating messages in and about Geordie that could be spread worldwide. What puzzled me at the time was that this very overt awareness of Geordie coincided with incontrovertible evidence of the levelling of this accent towards a more pan-northern variety. Was this a case, to quote Joni Mitchell, of you dont know what youve got til its gone, or was there a more interesting explanation? When I came across the papers by Michael Silverstein and Asif Agha on indexicality and enregisterment, the scales fell away from my eyes: what I was observing was the use of an enregistered variety to transmit messages about what it meant to be Geordie, and, in the case of the artefacts for sale, to profit from the association of Geordie dialect with desirable social characteristics. Whether this accent/dialect was still being used on an everyday basis was beside the point.

In this volume, Emilia Di Martino tells the story of Geordie in the twenty-first century, when the viral nature of e-communication and the rise of Geordie mega-celebrities like Cheryl have taken this process to another level. In a scholarly but lively and engaging account, she interweaves the theories of Silverstein, Agha and third-wave sociolinguistics with extracts from broadcasts and interviews to chart the rise of the characterological figure of Geordieness that Cheryl represents, and to compare this with other representations of Geordie identity. In doing so, she makes what can sometimes seem abstruse theory come alive. This volume is not only of interest to Geordie-watchers like myself, but will inspire scholars at all levels to carry out their own research on other dialects in popular culture.

Joan C. Beal, Emeritus Professor of English Language, University of Sheffield

This introductory chapter is addressed to the expert reader with an interest in more general methodological issues. It argues for the methodological choices at the basis of the study carried out here. It may be skipped by the general reader, as well as by readers with a specific interest in the Geordie accent/dialect. The section specifically focusing on Geordie () is self-standing.

The aim of this volume is to reflect on the socio-political values of the stylistic practices enacted in a number of high performances (i.e. pre-announced, planned, public communicative events) both shaping and emerging from it: the commonly used name for people from the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in north-east England, and by extension the