LanguageandEthnicIdentity.pptVIP

Language and Ethnic Identity Obasan, Double Happiness, Laiwan, M. Noubese Philip, a Singaporean Example Starting Questions: Language and Identity Does being able to speak in English have anything to do with your sense of identity? What do you feel about speaking in English and in Chinese or the other languages? What do you feel about the “All People’s English Movement” (全民英語運動)？ In-Between Two Languages English on the practical level: business; daily communication, jobs, etc. On the level of identity: Two languages used/combined creatively ? broadened world views? conflict, ambiguity, duality ? self-rejection or diffidence Different Kinds of Languages and Silences Silence is gold. Forbearance. Silence as a kind of language; Attentive Silence (e.g. Naomi’s family). Ethnics-- Being Tongue-Tied or Many-Mouthed; Losing a Language; Secrecy Repression (Obasan, Double Happiness) Silence of History Freeing Word Communication. Language for Self-Expression; Self-Defense. Languages as systems of beliefs (“Discourse on the Logic of Language”) Hierarchy of Languages//Races (“Imperialism of Syntax”; Jade’s father) Distortion, Fiction and Lies. (“Universal Grammar”) Obasan: two kinds of silence There is a silence that cannot speak. (repression) There is a silence that will not speak.(protective silence) Beneath the grass the speaking dreams and beneath the dreams is a sensate sea. The speech that frees comes forth from that amniotic deep (source of maternal nourishment). To attend its voice, I can hear it say, is to embrace its absence. But I fail the task. The word is stone. Obasan: search for liberation I admit it. I hate the stillness. I hate the stone. . . . Unless the stone bursts with telling, unless the seed flowers with speech, there is in my life no living word. The sound I hear is only sound. White sound. Words, when they fall, are pock marks on the earth. They are hailstones seeking an underground stream. If I could follow the stream down and