Abstract
This paper provides a categorization of the ways whereby the linguistic and semiotic landscape of Qatar is inhabited by the concept of Al-Andalus. Al-Andalus is viewed as a cultural imaginary (cf. Shannon, 2015), namely as a set of values, institutions, laws, and symbols through which people imagine their social whole. More specifically, this imaginary is realized as a Discourse and discourse (Gee, 1996). Gee’s distinction between the two types of D/discourse recognizes the interrelationships between social relations, social identities, contexts, and specific situations of language use. The data used for this paper include an ongoing compilation of an image-based corpus from around Qatar of Al-Andalus-related signs (in Arabic with their English transliterations and vice-versa) After providing a typology of the instantiations of the Al-Andalus D/discourse in Qatar in terms of relevant categories (e.g. shops, restaurants, trading businesses, schools), an attempt is made to tap into the functions of this discourse in the shaping of the contemporary Qatari linguistic and semiotic landscape.
The Discourse of Al-Andalus in Qatar is argued to be a socially accepted association among ways of using language, other symbolic expressions, such as architecture, and artifacts, of thinking, feeling, believing, valuing, and acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group (Gee, 1996, p. 131), which in this paper is identified with the diverse population and visitors of Qatar. On the other hand, discourse with a lower case d can be seen as "any stretch of language (spoken, written, signed) which “hangs together” to make sense to some community of people who use that language” (Gee, 1996: 100). Examples of both Al-Andalus D/discourse are analyzed.
Ultimately, I argue that the Al-Andalus D/discourse gets resemiotized (Iedema 2003) in various ways, which include linguistic (such as its transliteration and semiotic (through creative transformations of Moorish architecture) ones, and it creates a space, where Qatari nationals, residents, and visitors alike are encouraged to spend their time and money. Such a consumerism-led recreation of the Andalusian subjectivities is employed in order for Qatar to construct a distinctive type of semiotic identity for its nationals, residents, and visitors alike which aspires to be seen as Islamically cosmopolitan but without succumbing to the pressures of westernization.
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