Performing Parisian. Gender Performances, Elite Discourse and Multimodality on Instagram

Abstract

This paper leans on the thematic dimensions of gender, tourism and multimodality to explore how Instagram users construct Parisian narratives at the Café de Flore geotag. Employing a sociolinguistic and social-semiotic framework, the present study discusses a corpus of 75 posts tagged at Café de Flore between 1st January and 31st January 2022. Two research questions were identified for this purpose. The first explores how the notion of “Parisian”, as both a noun and an adjective, is represented linguistically by Instagram users at Café de Flore. As a secondary line of inquiry, we examine how the Parisian themes established in the captions and hashtags of these posts are further elaborated semiotically through the use of multimodal resources. Findings suggest that the terms “Parisian” and “Parisienne” as both nouns and adjectives, are deployed as profitable labels in the networked context of Instagram. We conclude that Instagram users further elaborate on these linguistic representations in their posts by selecting and ordering semiotic resources associated with French cultural tropes. Gendered language and gender display were among the most salient of these resources. Used strategically, these discursive practices aid users in depicting themselves as expert, feminine narrators in an elite sociocultural context. Finally, our data suggest that Instagram users portray Café de Flore as a specifically Parisian (rather than French) site of engagement and a physical resource for the generation of profitable material online.