‘Rainbow plague’ or ‘rainbow allies’? tęcza ‘rainbow’ as a floating signifier in the contestation of Poland’s national identity
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2022-01-01
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The anti-genderism register, which demonises the LGBTQ+ community as promoters of so-called ‘gender ideology’, has spread in recent decades across right wing populist discourses around the world. In Poland, it is an important resource in right wing constructions of national identity, which appeal to a historicised account of Poland as the guardian of European Christianity. However, there is also a counternarrative that envisions Poland as a progressive member of the European Union with secular politics and respect for diversity in all its forms. In this context, the Polish lexeme tęcza ‘rainbow’ is a floating signifier whose meanings are struggled over by opposing discourses of LGBTQ+ rights and their place in Polish public life. Drawing on an analysis of 521 texts from five media outlet types on the right and left wing sides of the political spectrum, this article examines the contestation of tęcza as a site where the very meaning of present-day Polishness is discursively negotiated.
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Baran, D (2022). ‘Rainbow plague’ or ‘rainbow allies’? tęcza ‘rainbow’ as a floating signifier in the contestation of Poland’s national identity. Gender and Language, 16(3). pp. 286–307. 10.1558/genl.21097 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/26691.
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Dominika M Baran
My research interests encompass language, identity, and migration, as well as language, gender, and sexuality. My 2017 book, Language in Immigrant America, is an interdisciplinary examination of language as a site for the contestation of “immigrant” and “American” identities, and argues that these two categories have always been overlapping, conflicting, fluid, and mutually constitutive, as well as formed in the context of multilingualism. My current book project focuses on narratives of migration and belonging among former fellow refugees, and on narratives and discourse on social media. I am particularly interested in how migrant identities are formed and enacted through discourse and linguistic practices, such as code-switching and translanguaging. Simultaneously, I have been researching anti-LGBTQ+ discourses and far-right nationalism with a focus on Poland. This work is based on critical analyses of Polish far-right media, political, and ultraconservative Catholic discourses since 2019, and unmasks how queerphobia is mobilized to support multiple far-right agendas including extreme nationalism and conspiracy theories around COVID-19 denial.
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