ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 opens the last section of the book, which focuses on the performative aspects of on-screen multilingualism, embracing a theoretical sociocultural perspective. It proposes to examine the links between on-screen multilingual performance in television fiction and globalization processes, and it does so by adopting a historical and cultural transnational approach. Instead of analyzing dispersed examples of content across the globe, the chapter suggests thinking of multilingual television series as “discriminable units of performance,” where stratified multilingual and cultural encounters create, activate, and reproduce new sociolinguistic identities. The chapter focuses on three central features: visio-linguistic constructions of ethnicity and race; casting, linguistic verisimilitude, and global audiences; and multilingual performers’ tool kits. Finally, the chapter contends about major forces shaping on-screen linguistic performances in today’s film and television industries.
