“BUT THAT’S BECAUSE PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHAT POLE DANCING IS”: CONTRIBUTIONS OF EVALUATION TO THE DISCURSIVE ANALYSIS OF STIGMAS

ABSTRACT In this article, we investigate an interaction between pole dancing practitioners, focusing on the reaction and the resistance related to the recurrent construction of stigmas about the activity. Inserted in the area of Contemporary Applied Linguistics, the research is centered on the observation of the discursive evaluative mechanisms negotiated by the interlocutors and their contributions to the reframing of the activity they practice. The microdiscursive analysis is based on the appraisal theory, imbedded in Systemic-Functional Linguistics. Evaluations produced mainly in the domains of affect and judgment are highlighted in order to foreground the stigmas problematized in participants’ discourses. The methodology is oriented by the qualitative paradigm and the corpus was generated in a recorded conversation between the first author and her pole dancing teacher. Our understandings suggest that participants conceive pole dancing as a liberating practice, creating a discourse that reframes it positively and that resists against conservative hegemonic views, such as the ones which stigmatize the activity and consider it a vulgar and deviant practice.

摘要
本研究聚焦钢管舞（pole dancing）从业者间的互动行为，重点探讨与该活动反复被构建污名化现象相关的从业者反应与抵抗行动。本研究立足于当代应用语言学（Contemporary Applied Linguistics）领域，核心在于观察对话者协商形成的话语评价机制，以及此类机制对其所从事活动的意义重构所发挥的作用。本次微观话语分析以嵌入系统功能语言学（Systemic-Functional Linguistics）框架内的评价理论（appraisal theory）为理论基础，重点凸显主要产生于情感（affect）与判断（judgment）维度的评价内容，以揭示参与者话语中被问题化的污名化现象。本研究采用质化研究范式，语料源自第一作者与其钢管舞教师的一段录制对话。研究结果表明，参与者将钢管舞视作一种解放性实践活动，通过构建积极重构该活动的话语，对抗将其污名化、视其为低俗越轨行为的保守霸权式观点。