The comedic performance of Mock Haitian in Dominican media: A raciosemiotic approach to enregisterment

Abstract

Abstract In the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrants are conspicuously absent in Dominican media, yet one Haitian performer has been extraordinarily successful on mainstream talk shows, “El Moreno Venezolano” (the Black Venezuelan). His comedic performances hinge on an emphatic denial of his Haitian heritage, claiming instead to be Venezuelan. In this study, we identify the raciosemiotic features, including enregistered linguistic forms, exploited to construct an identifiable Haitian character, as well as the language features of a Mock Haitian register used to create a Haitian accent. Our analysis shows that while El Moreno Venezolano frequently invokes hegemonic racializing scripts for humorous effect, his comedic engagement with the local semiotic system permits him to covertly challenge the Dominican ethnoracial hierarchy. This leads to a key finding: the performer's manipulation of sign values functions as a tactic of subversion. Furthermore, the study stakes a claim for the importance of the body as a readable text in processes of enregisterment, especially those involving mock registers and character performance.

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