Affective regimes on Wilton Drive: a multimodal analysis

Abstract

This study focuses on public signage on Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors, Florida – a homonormative space that privileges the representation of the experiences and needs of particular groups of gay men to the exclusion of other sexualities. I use a linguistic landscape methodology to conduct a multimodal critical discourse analysis in which I identify prevalent affective regimes discursively surfacing in public signage on Wilton Drive. My research interest lies in the question of how affective regimes are produced through signage practices, and how they shape social representation in this homonormative space. After a theoretical outline of the concepts of linguistic landscape, affect and affective regimes, I illustrate and analyze the discursive construction of three types of affective regimes that are particularly common in this context: love, tolerance and homonationalism. The analysis shows how the three affective regimes contribute to making Wilton Drive a space in which specific social normativities prevail, but also takes a critical look at the downsides of such discursive constructions.