Affect as narrative action in the Global South

Abstract

This paper focuses on the performance of small stories from two Cambodian men interviewed by the researcher about the relationships they form with men from the Global North. The analysis attends to the empirical significance of these performances by focusing on the mobilization of affect as an interactional linguistic and narrative resource that foregrounds social action in this context. In this way, these small stories reveal how these men may challenge and reshape dominant social discourses at this sexualised North/South interface. Bringing to the field of narrative inquiry approaches from queer linguistics, and Southern perspectives, this paper is therefore tasked with exploring what the field may potentially gain from these areas, especially regarding the theoretical and methodological possibilities of a North/South dialogue in the production of knowledge.

Introduction

“…LGBT language in Southeast Asia. Of note is the work of Tom Boellstorff (2004a;2004b;2005) on gay and transgender language in Indonesia and Benedict Rowlett (2018;2019) on same-sex language in Cambodia. In recent years, academics focused on language and sexuality in the context of Singapore have also produced a good deal of writing.…”