The Potential of Narrative Cinema in Language Ideological Clarification: Kneecap (Peppiatt, 2024), Humour and the Irish Language

Abstract

The importance of popular culture in language revitalisation is becoming ever clearer, with the Irish language providing a particularly notable example following the recording-breaking public, critical and financial success of feature film An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl, Bairéad 2022). The semi-fictionalised music biopic Kneecap (Peppiatt, 2024), however, stands out within this growing canon of Irish-language cinema for its explicit engagement with the issue of language rights and revitalisation. Uniting sociolinguistics, humour theory and film studies, this paper will explore how Kneecap represents a new possibility for narrative cinema as a site of language ideological clarification (Kroskrity 2009), focusing on the linguistic encounters and resulting dialogues of the character of JJ (JJ Ó Dochartaigh). Exploring vernacular, institutionalised and politicised language use, this paper ultimately argues that the emotional responses and cognitive understandings facilitated by the humorous cinematic narrative allow for a more nuanced and successful staging of language ideological contestation and clarification.