Vitalidade linguística e construção de identidades de descendentes de poloneses no sul do Paraná

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze the constitution of ethnic and linguistic identities of a group of Polish descendants who live in a rural community in the countryside of the State of Paraná, Brazil. In the study, we identified some literacy events which occur in Polish, both at school and out of it, aiming at verifying how these events contribute to identity construction, and the vitality of the Polish language in that community. This research is theoretically based on identity construction (HALL, 2005; GEE, 2000), literacy practices (STREET, 1984), as well as on the vitality of minority languages (TERBORG; GARCÍA LANDA, 2011). The nature of the research is qualitative-interpretative with an ethnographic perspective, based on the ethnography of language (GARCEZ e SCHULZ, 2015), and the instruments for data generation are audiovisual recordings made of Polish language classes and questionnaires answered by learners, the teacher, and the school pedagogue. Semi structured interviews were also conducted with people in the community, as well as notes in a field journal and audio recordings of the interviews. Besides, several documents were analyzed, as the ones from CELEM (Centro de Línguas Estrangeiras Modernas – Center for Modern Foreign Languages), referring to the school´s implementation of the Polish language; the official registration book, which contains the community´s parishional documents, and at the Museum, where the historical documents connected to the Polish culture were studied, which subsidized the development of this research. The results show that religious tradition is one of the identitary aspects which are more rooted and present in the community to this day. However, some literacy events which happened at the local church, and maintained the vitality of that language, unfortunately are no longer held. The only literacy event which is still kept in church, in Polish, is the recital of the rosary before dominical masses. In the familiar scope, the Polish language is frequently used, it is a Brazilian Polish, mixed with the Portuguese language (code-switching). For this reason, some expressions like “broken Polish”, “Brazilian Polish”, or “countryside Polish” are expressions used by the participants to refer to the Polish language they speak; it often indicates low self-esteem regarding themselves and others. As to the ethnic-linguistic identity, this alternates between Brazilian and Polish identities, depending on their interlocutors and the circumstances surrounding them. Finally, the results show that, in general, the women (“doers” and “invisible”) in Santa Faustina take on several roles, especially in the house and the church, but they are not empowered amidst the community.