Jansen S (2021)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2021
Publisher: Routledge
Edited Volumes: Topics in Spanish Linguistic Perceptions
City/Town: London
Pages Range: 119-137
ISBN: 9781000454574
This chapter focuses on ethnic perceptions in the Dominican bateys, i.e., rural communities that were established in the context of the sugar cane industry and are strongly shaped by transnational migration dynamics between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Our analysis is based on 17 qualitative interviews conducted in the batey Alejandro Bass in the Southeast of the country, with participants of both Dominican and Haitian-Dominican origin. Applying a discourse analysis approach, we examine how batey dwellers use linguistic means to construct, reproduce, and evaluate ethnic categories. Special attention is paid to focal categories, social deixis, metaphors, and implicit evaluations of different ethnic groups. Based on perceived differences in skin color, religion, and language, “Dominican” and “Haitian” are construed as two separate and polar opposite categories of ethnic and national belonging. The Haitian group is discursively construed as the “other” and painted as culturally inferior. These discursive constructions reflect anti-Haitian ideologies that have been circulating in the country, and have become explicitly virulent in the face of political struggles over citizenship of Haitian descendants.
APA:
Jansen, S. (2021). Perceptions of ethnic difference in a transnational context: A case study from the batey Alejandro Bass (Dominican Republic). In Ortiz López, Luis; Suárez Büdenbender, Eva-Maria (Eds.), Topics in Spanish Linguistic Perceptions. (pp. 119-137). London: Routledge.
MLA:
Jansen, Silke. "Perceptions of ethnic difference in a transnational context: A case study from the batey Alejandro Bass (Dominican Republic)." Topics in Spanish Linguistic Perceptions. Ed. Ortiz López, Luis; Suárez Büdenbender, Eva-Maria, London: Routledge, 2021. 119-137.
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