Celebrity Accents and Public Identity Construction Analyzing Geordie Stylizations

Geordie Stylizations is a short-focused research work which builds on the renovated interest on the nexus between accent-identity-prestige-prejudice, offering an analysis of celebrities' use of the Geordie variety in a series of public performances as a reflection instrument for scholars, but also for neophyte readers with an interest in Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics, Celebrity Studies, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and Gender Studies. Of interest are the individual instances of Geordieness performed on specific occasions, i.e. the ways in which people construct their unique and constantly evolving language repertoires sometimes appropriating some, other times distancing themselves from, linguistic traits that would characterize them as members of specific communities in other people's perceptions. The material investigated is provided by the artistic world: engaging with the arts and culture, and in particular with music, is not just a solitary event, but also a participatory one which many people feel is worthwhile sharing through ordinary conversation and interaction via social networks every day.

1. Introduction 2. High Performances of Geordieness 3. Detachability of Geordie indices4. Transportability of Geordie indices 5. Public acceptance in the construction of Geordie identity 6. Local meanings and politics of Geordie styling 7. Conclusions

Emilia Di Martino is Associate Professor of English linguistics at Università Suor Orsola Benincasa, Italy. She is interested in a wide variety of topics, mostly focusing on the nexus amongst identity, language and power. She has published extensively, is a regular reviewer and sits on the advisory panel for a series of national and international journals.