Tempo and affect in the Linguistic Landscape

Abstract

While the role of time and emotion have been acknowledged in linguistic and semiotic landscapes research, the particular qualities of tempo and affect have rarely been discussed directly. This case study from an Italian-American festival in South Philadelphia, a diverse and changing urban neighborhood, demonstrates how the two qualities work together to influence the discursive construction of identity for residents as they interact with the space. Ethnographic observation and photographs from the two days of the festival, as well as interviews with locals, frame the discussion of how to explore the landscape through this lens. The paper encourages researchers to devote more attention to the abstract qualities of landscapes, and serves as a starting point for critical examinations of a place and the distribution of capital among its occupants.