Semiotic Disruption and Negotiations of Authenticity among Argentine Fans of Anglophone Media

Abstract

This paper investigates how subtitling and dubbing of foreign language media can be interpreted as cases of semiotic disruption, and how this interpretive frame comes to index a cosmopolitan identity among Argentine fans of Anglophone pop culture. The naturalization of voice/body/language assemblages allows fans to frame preferences for subtitles as an obvious consequence of “authentic” fan identity. Discourses of liberal inclusivity and literacy allow them to simultaneously explain others’ preferences for dubbing as consequences of class, education, and maturity. I argue that these stance-taking strategies are ways of mitigating the economic precarity of being Argentinean in a global/izing world.