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Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 3:1 (2017) ► pp.78–99

Liminality, heterotopic sites, and the linguistic landscape

The case of Venice

| University of Liverpool
This paper is an investigation into the construction of Venice as a heterotopia – another place – characterised by a liminal linguistic landscape (LL) against a background of mass tourism seen as the enactment of different tourist subjectivities converging onto a peculiarly transnational space. The first part of the study contextualises mass tourism and outlines the concepts of liminality, deterritorialisation and heterotopia. The second part presents and discusses the data, which lay the basis for a linguistic and semiotic reading of Venice’s public space. The conclusion proposes an interpretation of Venice’s LL as a deterritorialised, heterotopic and liminal space, and, importantly, highlights that LL studies have much to contribute to an understanding of late modernity.
Keywords: Venice, heterotopia, liminality, deterritorialisation, tourist, pilgrim
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Contextualising mass tourism: the tourist as a modern pilgrim
  • 3.Heterotopic sites, liminality and deterritorialisation
  • 4.Empirical evidence
    • 4.1Language displays
    • 4.2Beyond language
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References


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Published online: 29 June 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.3.1.04tuf
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