TY - JOUR
T1 - Discourse as virtue ethics
T2 - Muslim women in the American Southwest
AU - C. Taha, Maisa
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, The Author(s).
PY - 2017/10/10
Y1 - 2017/10/10
N2 - This article examines naturally occurring speech among participants in a young women’s halaqa, or study circle, at a mosque in the southwest United States to detail how “tactics of linguistic objectification” provide anchor points for ethical negotiations of difference. By focusing on linguistic micro-practices, including codeswitching and mock “foreign” accents, this paper brings a linguistic anthropological approach to bear upon this inquiry into discourse as a mode of phronesis. It is argued that, during informal conversation, core members of this group of largely second-generation immigrant women highlighted features of non-native English speech to monitor, examine, and mediate their own and their families’ hypervisibility as U.S. Muslims. As policy and public opinion paint a picture of Muslims as an existential threat to the west, these women’s language use, narratives and laughter act as in-group responses to social scrutiny that makes acknowledgement and normalization of Muslim difference obligatory. This article is published as part of a collection on discourse studies.
AB - This article examines naturally occurring speech among participants in a young women’s halaqa, or study circle, at a mosque in the southwest United States to detail how “tactics of linguistic objectification” provide anchor points for ethical negotiations of difference. By focusing on linguistic micro-practices, including codeswitching and mock “foreign” accents, this paper brings a linguistic anthropological approach to bear upon this inquiry into discourse as a mode of phronesis. It is argued that, during informal conversation, core members of this group of largely second-generation immigrant women highlighted features of non-native English speech to monitor, examine, and mediate their own and their families’ hypervisibility as U.S. Muslims. As policy and public opinion paint a picture of Muslims as an existential threat to the west, these women’s language use, narratives and laughter act as in-group responses to social scrutiny that makes acknowledgement and normalization of Muslim difference obligatory. This article is published as part of a collection on discourse studies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065035913&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1057/palcomms.2017.26
DO - 10.1057/palcomms.2017.26
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065035913
SN - 2055-1045
VL - 3
JO - Palgrave Communications
JF - Palgrave Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 17026
ER -