LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPES AND THE TRANSGRESSIVE SEMIOTICS OF GRAFFITI

Abstract

Graffiti is a transgressive global art. An element of worldwide hip-hop culture, it is part of both global transcultural flows and local subcultural practices of place. As the most visible element of hip-hop culture, it is viewed by many as inherently anti-social and thus is transgressive in two important ways: First, since it is often viewed as little more than vandalism, inconsiderate doodling on the bourgeois façades of society, it is seen as transgressive social behavior. Second, because hip-hop graffiti is aimed not at the conveying of messages to a broader community (as common graffiti texts may do) but rather at the creation of a subcultural community, its use of language as style rather than communication may be seen as semiotically transgressive. This chapter argues that an understanding of graffiti as transgressive urban semiotics opens up important directions for an understanding of linguistic landscapes (LL) more generally. By looking at current theories of urban space, time and semiotics, this chapter argues that we need to understand how graffiti writing is about space, naming and style; it is about place, pride, rebellion and appropriation. And, as a vicar of a local Anglican church recently put it, graffiti may be the stained glass windows of the twenty-first century.

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