“Are you out of the closet?” I explain.

He shakes his head from side to side a little, leans in and says slowly, “I’m not gay in Japanese, I’m only gay in English.”

The above excerpt introduces Marlen Elliot Harrison’s “Discovering Voices,” an examination of language, sexuality, and identity in 21^st century Japan. After living and teaching in Western Japan for 4 years, Harrison returned to the United States to complete a doctoral program in applied linguistics. When considering a dissertation topic, he recalled a conversation in which a friend discussed being gay in one language and not in another (above) and wanted to further explore why this might be. By weaving together his own narratives about Japan and sexuality with the autoethnographic narratives of queer Japanese individuals, Harrison showcases the intersection between linguistic repertoire and those critical moments when we conceptualize, reveal, and perform our sexualities. Harrison writes:

I can remember my reaction to Takashi’s statement – confusion. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean,” I replied. Takashi went on to explain that his family, co-workers, and most of his Japanese friends were unaware of his sexuality. What is it about English that Takashi should say that? Did he mean 1) that the actual word “gay” had either a different meaning or no meaning for him in Japanese, but a very specific meaning in English or vice versa; 2) that he prefers to reveal or perform his sexuality with English speakers or using the English language; or 3) that for Takashi, “gay” only exists as an identity construction in non-Japanese contexts? In other words, with regards to this last possibility, perhaps Takashi does not consider himself to have constructed a “gay” identity in his L1 communities, or if he has, perhaps this identity is silenced there (or according to Yoshino, “covered”) but expressed in other linguistic communities.

In this dissertation, Harrison introduces a puzzle of questions and responds to them by discussing key theoretical and methodological themes such as imagined communities and the role of narrative in sexuality ethnography, examining histories of same sex intimacy in Japan,  and considering the social significance of English language and culture in Japan.

Please browse this site for excerpts, background information, correspondence with participants, and other related projects from this researcher.

Interview, invite, or contact Marlen at [m dot e dot harrison at iup dot edu].

Additionally, the following slides correspond to Marlen’s 2011 Tokyo JALT presentation:

Language and Sexuality in Japan

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is said in Japan that “the nail that sticks out gets pounded down.”  Perhaps no one knows this expression better than Japan’s sexual minorities, some of whom perceive their daily lives to be a struggle for recognition and equality.  I must first acknowledge all of the men and women in Japan (and around the world) – including my family, colleagues, and close friends – who have not only encouraged my academic explorations of language and sexuality, but who have also offered support, insight, and participation in such endeavors:  Robert O’Mochain, Tomoko Oda, Atsushi Iida, Asuka Iijima, Koji Kitagawa, Yumiko Nishii, Ellen Head, Barbara Summerhawk, Akira Sasabe, Yukari Hamada, Tomo Uno, Janelle McNeill, Mark Harrison, Rebecca Hanners, Stacey Vye, Dana Beckelman, Hugh Nicoll, Michele Steele, Angela Ayers, Mindee Lieske, Paule Chao, the Peterson and Lewis families, Megan Herzing, Lisya Seloni, James Welker, Folake Abass, the Yukitoshi family, and the men and women of JALT, JACET, AMSA, and SSSS.  A huge thanks to New Victoria Publishers for their generous donation of the books Queer Japan and support of this project.  And most importantly to Anita Moran, Len Harrison and Shelly Sue Green Harrison for always being there when needed.  Boku no tomodachi tou kazoku niwa, arigatou gozaimasu!

I received much support, both financial and academic from my mentors and instructors at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  This project was made possible by a Doctoral Research Grant from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  To Professors Lilia Savova, Ben Rafoth, Michael M.  Williamson, David Hanauer, Gian Pagnucci and Sharon Deckert, I offer my thanks for sharing their passion and expertise throughout my education.  To Professor Gloria Park, I offer thanks for helping this project take shape and for seeing to it that I could continue with the project when progress seemed slow.  To Professor Robert Heasley, I offer my appreciation for the numerous opportunities given me to share this project with students and professional communities and for keeping the dialogue ever moving forward about gender and sexuality.  Finally, a huge thank you to Professor Nancy Hayward for her constant dedication and support while directing this entire project, from its inceptions in our Language and Social Context course to its final days in Jyväskylä, Finland.

Marlen will defend his dissertation in a public forum on Tuesday, November 16th at 3:30 PM, Leonard Hall, Nicholson Library.

This is directly related to  and inspired by the concept of imagined community, but more focused in its examination of the role of emotion in other-language acquisition and performance.

For example, I have always avoided learning German because of its relationship with Holocaust-era Germany and the yearly brainwashing about the violent massacres of this period in Hebrew School. I’m not proud of this bias, but nonetheless the affect I attribute to the language (violence, negativity, opposition) has prevented me from placing value in learning or using it.

In this project, affective stance will be constructed via the adjectives and metaphors employed in participant-researcher narratives and analyses. A perfect example of attributed English language affect by the Japanese participants in this project is their use of distance words such as near (Japanese) and far (English) and their explanations that this distance has an impact on the emotions of their imagined English worlds, and this contributes to the push/pull ideas about their linguistic communities.

For the Writing Classroom

• Metacognition and reflection
• Feedback and error correction
• The writing community
• Autoethnography & Phenomenographic writing

For Qualitative Research

• Feminist Communitarian Ethical Framework
• Collaborative analysis
• Semantic Analysis

For the TESOL/EFL/ESL Instructor

• Examination of critical pedagogies needced
• Greater understanding of gender and sexuality in cultural and social contexts
• Influence on methods and materials?

For Applied Linguistics:

• Foucouldian Discourses
• Imagined Communities of Practice and the Safe House
• Linguistic relativity
• Language and identity
• Language and sexuality
• Language and gender
• Language and affect

For Narrative and Social Psychology

• Narratives display multiple I-positions
• Variety of genres/approaches experimented with by participants
• Activist Stances adopted via narrative
• Different selves: Sometimes in conflict
• Types of language used, direct and indirect, reflect attitudes towards various social groups

For LGBT Studies

• Global Queering
• Sexuality as discursively constructed
• Sexuality as fluid and contextual
• Desire, behavior, and identity

As exposure to/immersion in an English-speaking environment increases (length of time), conceptualization of sexuality is apt to be influenced by ways of being that might conflict with those of the dominant L1 cultural community. This may reinforce the construction of a sexualized l2 identity, apart from the l1 identity. Revelation and performance may also be affected but are not as sensitive.

Performance - we perform our identities in many ways; some choose to construct a publicly open persona while others may choose to never publicize their sexuality. This project is concerned with the ways in which sexuality becomes performed or silenced in different linguistic communities and with members of those communities. Likewise, the ways in which language is used to perform sexualized identities is of equal interest.

Revelation - the coming out experiences (because they are a reality for those constructing public, sexualized, minority identities) can be examined in terms of who tells who what, and in what way. It is a rite of passage, a specific type of performance, for a sexual minority that can become a repetitive discourse, albeit one that has the ability to develop as the individual also develops. To get at the heart of Takashi’s (this project’s sample composite participant) comment about where he constructs homosexuality (In English, not in Japanese), we could look at the ways in which he reveals his constructed sexualized self, specifically regarding who he tells and in what ways.

Language AS identity – assuming that language itself can construct specific identities or that specific identities use specific types of language in unique ways. For example, if I live in Spain, but my first language is Catalan, I may not regard the Spanish language (the l2) spoken by the majority in the same way as I do my first language.