The Concept of Localness (“Tutėĭshastsʹ”) in Visual Communication in Public Space in Belarus as a Source of Exclusion

Abstract

Does the presence of several languages in visual communication in public space mean tolerance and equality between those who use them? Visual communication in public space creates and employs the concept of belonging to a community and constructs identity. Thus, multilingual public space communication may produce different meanings and identity mechanisms. In the article, I reconstruct the meanings produced in this communication in two periods of the national rise in Belarus (the 1920s and 1990s–2000s) and the concept of local identity they built. I show how they were shaped and what kind of exclusion mechanisms were produced in relatively different cultural contexts to preserve multilingualism in public space communications. To do this, I compare city signboards and printed materials from both periods.