Negotiating National Identity in Online Conversations: a Case Study of Ludic Discourse Practices in the Romanian Reddit
Negotiating National Identity in Online Conversations: a Case Study of Ludic Discourse Practices in the Romanian Reddit

Summary/Abstract: Reddit communities provide a particularly fertile ground for analyzing verbal interactions on a wide range of topics. Users who share common interests engage in nested conversations within online forums. Among these topics, national identity stands out for its sensitive nature, prompting Reddit users to negotiate discursive representations of nationality.Our research focuses on a set of playful discursive practices co-created within French-speaking Reddit communities. These playful practices take the form of game-like exchanges, in which users produce posts and comments according to predefined rules. Our qualitative discourse analysis reveals that Romanian-speaking Reddit users understand, negotiate, and (re)configure national identity by mobilizing specific verbal and visual resources. These playful practices stage fictional scenarios: one in which users alter the map of Romania, and another in which life in Romania is imagined as a role-playing video game.We observe that national identity is problematized and reshaped according to interactional goals. Ultimately, Romanian-speaking Reddit users “play” with the notion of national identity, which becomes the object of collective games based on the community members’ verbal contributions.

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