Falling in love again and again: Marlene Dietrich and the iconization of non-native English  

Oleh:

Bell, Allan

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Journal of Sociolinguistics (Full Text) vol. 15 no. 5 (2011), page 627-656.
Topik: Performance; singing; non-native English; Referee Design; Audience Design; enregisterment; Dietrich; femme fatale; iconization
Fulltext: Bell_Allan falling....pdf (223.84KB)

Isi artikel

Icons are those stars who have become widely established and circulated as enduring international cult figures. Numbered among these is Marlene Dietrich, one of a class of international performers who present in English although not native speakers. Her performances can be theorized as Referee Design, by which speakers target linguistic codes other than their own. Dietrich came to stardom in the 1930 German-made film, The Blue Angel, which provided her career-long signature tune, ‘Falling in love again’. Analysis of her pronunciation showsher English asmarkedlynon-native. Her subsequent Hollywood films crafted Dietrich’s image, enregistering her nonnative accent and baritone quality as the first and lasting voice of the femme fatale. For threedecades fromthe1940sDietrich touredalive showrenowned for her stunning costumes. Comparison of a 1964 stage performance of ‘Falling in love again’ reveals her English as much more native but still retaining a hearably different accent, which isnowvalorized as her distinctive voice. Dietrich’s decades of repeated performances established her iconicity, and her appearance and vocal style – both its timbre and pronunciation – were widely circulated, referenced, imitated, and occasionally parodied. Living the femme fatale persona in her own life, and cultivating her image with extreme reflexivity, Marlene Dietrich achieved the ultimate ingroup identification. In language and appearance, she became her own referee.

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