Narratives of positionality in contemporary Gagauzia: complexity and national normativity
Date
2022-07-14
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Abstract
Doktoritöö käsitleb Moldovas Gagauusia autonoomses territoriaalüksuses loodud etnograafilise ainese põhjal üksikisikute ja riikide positsionaalsuse narratiivide lõikepunkte globaalse ebavõrdsuse taustal. Kui traditsioonilist ’identiteedi’ mõistet saadab essentsialismi taak, siis ’positsionaalsuse narratiividele’ keskendumine pakub alternatiivi, nihutades esiplaanile konteksti ja praktikad. Uurimus käsitleb kriitiliselt rahvuslikku normatiivsust kui sundust kuulutada end teatud rahvusesse kuuluvaks. Väitekiri analüüsib ajalooliselt, keeleliselt, kultuuriliselt ja geograafiliselt Bulgaaria, Moldova, Türgi, Rumeenia ja Venemaaga seotud Gagauusiat ümbritsevate rahvusriikide osalt kattuvate identiteedipoliitikate ja -diskursuste sihtmärgina, näidates, kuidas Gagauusia ja selle elanikud navigeerivad nende vahel strateegiliselt, et kasutada neile pakutud võimalusi ja materiaalset tuge. Lähemalt vaadeldakse keelepraktikaid ja -ideoloogiad ning nende osalust rahvusliku normatiivsuse ja sellega paratamatult seotud väljaarvamiste alalhoidmisel. Samuti pälvivad tähelepanu Gagauusia „etnopoliitilised ettevõtjad“, kelle äriideed ja -tegevus rajanevad nende endi loodud kujutlustel eelmodernsest homogeensest talupojakultuurist ja sellest lähtuval autentse gagauusialikkuse retoorikal. Väitekiri rõhutab kohapealsete individuaalsete ja kollektiivsete positsionaalsuse narratiivide mitmekesisust ja dünaamikat. Tegemist on uudse lähenemisega, sest kuigi viimastel aastatel on lisandunud mitmeid uurimusi Gagauusiast, napib etnograafilistel välitöödel põhinevaid ja eemilist vaatepunkti väärtustavaid käsitlusi. Väitekirjas analüüsitakse ka autoetnograafiliselt rahvusliku normatiivsuse painet autori enda elus ja teadustöös, kõigutades nii vaatleja ja vaadeldava konventsionaalset dihhotoomiat. Argumenteerides komplekssuse teadvustamise ja välja toomise poolt, püüab doktoritöö mõtestada ümber kategooriaid, mille läbi me maailma ja kaasinimesi vaatleme ning ennastki esitleme ja väljendame.
Drawing on ethnographic data from Gagauzia, an autonomous area in Moldova, this dissertation deals with concentric intersections of individuals’ and geopolitical configurations’ narratives of positionality, situating them within global frameworks of uneven distribution of wealth and entitlement. Focusing on narratives of positionality as an alternative to traditional concepts of identity aims to shed essentialist baggage, bringing context and practice to the forefront. This work unpacks Gagauzia’s historical, cultural, linguistic, and geographic ties to Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Turkey, all of which exert overlapping identity-framed discourses and policies, exploring how they are navigated strategically in order to access opportunity and material support. As such, it problematizes issues of national normativity, compulsion to voice belonging vis-à-vis national labels. Particular attention is given to language practices and ideologies, demonstrating how they structure national normativity and accompanying cycles of exclusion. In addition, this dissertation zooms in on Gagauzian ethnopolitical entrepreneurs, who advance business initiatives by reproducing template imaginings of folk culture to create rhetoric on authentic Gagauzian-ness. Emphasizing diversity and dynamism among local accounts of both self and collective, this dissertation lends underrepresented ethnographic data and emic perspective to the growing body of research on Gagauzia. In an effort to disrupt observer/observed dynamics, this project also contains an autoethnographic component, scrutinizing the author’s own embeddedness in and negotiations of national normativity. By arguing for more complexity in representing places like Gagauzia, this dissertation endeavors to critically rethink the categories through which we view the world and our fellow world inhabitants, and through which we perform and narrate our own articulations of self.
Drawing on ethnographic data from Gagauzia, an autonomous area in Moldova, this dissertation deals with concentric intersections of individuals’ and geopolitical configurations’ narratives of positionality, situating them within global frameworks of uneven distribution of wealth and entitlement. Focusing on narratives of positionality as an alternative to traditional concepts of identity aims to shed essentialist baggage, bringing context and practice to the forefront. This work unpacks Gagauzia’s historical, cultural, linguistic, and geographic ties to Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Turkey, all of which exert overlapping identity-framed discourses and policies, exploring how they are navigated strategically in order to access opportunity and material support. As such, it problematizes issues of national normativity, compulsion to voice belonging vis-à-vis national labels. Particular attention is given to language practices and ideologies, demonstrating how they structure national normativity and accompanying cycles of exclusion. In addition, this dissertation zooms in on Gagauzian ethnopolitical entrepreneurs, who advance business initiatives by reproducing template imaginings of folk culture to create rhetoric on authentic Gagauzian-ness. Emphasizing diversity and dynamism among local accounts of both self and collective, this dissertation lends underrepresented ethnographic data and emic perspective to the growing body of research on Gagauzia. In an effort to disrupt observer/observed dynamics, this project also contains an autoethnographic component, scrutinizing the author’s own embeddedness in and negotiations of national normativity. By arguing for more complexity in representing places like Gagauzia, this dissertation endeavors to critically rethink the categories through which we view the world and our fellow world inhabitants, and through which we perform and narrate our own articulations of self.
Description
Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone
Keywords
Gagauzia, Gagauzes, identity, narrative, culture, folk culture, modernity, inequality, autoethnography, folklore studies