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Subverting the Culturally Unreadable: Understanding the Self-Positioning of Non-Binary Speakers of French
- The French Review
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 94, Number 2, December 2020
- pp. 173-192
- 10.1353/tfr.2020.0280
- Article
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Abstract:
In response to evolving sociocultural constructions of gender and increasing visibility of non-binary subject positions, speakers of French are subverting and adapting this grammatically binary language. However, existing studies have overwhelmingly remained detached from the ways that non-binary Francophones experience their own cultural positioning. The present study bridges this linguistic and cultural divide by investigating the themes and strategies used by 71 non-binary Francophones in discussing their own positionalities. Centering the voices of non-binary Francophones creates space for a deeper understanding of the broader social movements for the recognition of non-binary lives in Francophone contexts such as Canada and France.