610 research outputs found
Black Langue and White Parole
No full textOur paper aims to carry out a stylistic and linguistic study of the representation of cultural, racial and linguistic hegemony (Gramsci 1975) in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016). First of all, we will use Simpson’s (1993) point of view framework to analyse the representation of the slave identity through the eyes of the protagonists as filtered by the narrator but also that of the white masters, especially in their dialogical contacts with the black characters. Point of view will be studied in particular with reference to the characters’ perspectives in moments of doubt, to illustrate how they question the American society of the time. Secondly, we will discuss Whitehead’s linguistic depiction of white oppression and black subordination. The author normally translates the slaves’ dialect into standard English (leaving, nonetheless, some occasional vernacular elements to preserve the ‘spirit’ of the original) apparently disregarding linguistic ‘authenticity.’ However, he shows episodes where there is a
contrast between the idiolects of the characters who take part in a dialogue (generally in conversations between black characters and the white man) and instances where such contrast is absent (usually in dialogues between black characters only). Our twofold hypothesis is that the overwhelming prevalence of white over ‘incorrect’ black parole not only makes the text more comprehensible to a wider public, but it also shows how, by delegitimizing black speech, the white master enforces his hegemony, which, according to Gramsci (2014), can be more effectively sustained “through cultural leadership” (Dale Parker 2008, 218). All in all, our analysis will attempt to show how the racism issue addressed through the stylistics and dialect theoretical frameworks manages to show the impact of hegemonic forces on social and cultural relations
From ‘authenticity’ to iThenticity – The quest for ‘truth’ in a post-patriarchal world
No full textFor centuries, the concept of ‘authenticity’ has been central to Western culture. In patriarchal Indo-European societies, the father had to certify that his paternity was ‘authentic’. This was the unavoidable precondition to hand down power to the next male generation and preserve patriarchal supremacy. Nowadays, patriarchy is slowly being substituted by a more egalitarian social structure and all those voices which for centuries had to remain silent (women, homosexuals, ethnic minorities, etc.) are challenging the former hegemonic monophony of ‘impartial truths’. However, the multiplicity of contrasting points of view coexisting in this new emerging global polyphony clashes with the old logic of binary oppositions, leaving the post-patriarchal human being ‘stranded’ in a world of Derridian undecidables. To tackle this problem, we could resort to the concept of iThenticity (‘i’ = ‘interactivity’). Within this framework, individual discourses are not regarded as independent entities but rather as interacting constituents of a larger system which assimilates each single ‘authenticity’ into a polyphonic negotiation of new meanings that heterogeneously merge into a multifaceted iThentic macro-discourse. By its mere existence, each single sub-discourse (biased by default) proclaims the partiality of every ‘authenticity’ within the system and, thus, the inevitably partial nature of all the other sub-discourses. In the iThentic macro-discourse, the individual sub-discourses conflate into bigger super-signs capable of ‘storing’ more meaning. This partially narrows the distance between signifieds and their referents, it undermines binary oppositions and, consequently, makes undecidability easier to deal with
The Underground Pride: A Road Map to the Grammar of Freedom
No full textOur proposal aims to illustrate how two apparently different novels – with regards to their historical time of publication, content and scope – can instead show similarities in the rendition of their female protagonists, their treatment of women’s condition, rebellion against social constraints and human bondage.
The two novels in question, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016), present similarities and obvious differences. They will be analysed from the angle of two intertextual exemplifications and through the analytical framework of Simpson’s point of view in narrative texts.
The two intertextual exemplifications we aim to use for our analysis are social conventions and the exit/return dichotomy.
With regards to the former intertext, social conventions, we refer to those constraints the two protagonists, Elisabeth and Cora, try to rebel against. The 19th-century Elisabeth Bennet is constantly portrayed as questioning the pressures society imposes upon a young intelligent woman with an uncommon independence of mind. The 19th-century slave girl Cora is in constant search for freedom against all odds. In her journey she nonetheless appeals to her wit to question the violence and predominance of both white men and black men – be them slaves or freemen.
The second intertext, exit and return, is drawn somehow from the ‘salidas’ Don Quixote takes to begin each of his trips/viajes (1605) and which lead the way to the pivotal moments in both our novels. Elisabeth’s leaving her home on foot to check on her sister’s health at Longbourn is one example, Cora’s many attempts to flee the plantation is another.
As mentioned, both intertexts will be analysed within the framework of Paul Simpson’s illustration of point of view in English narratives (1993). Point of view will be studied in particular with reference to the characters’ perspectives in moments of doubts, when and how society is viewed, judged and questioned. We will refer to Simpson’s narratorial and reflector mode in the third person, depending on “whether the narrative is related from a position outside the consciousness of any character, or whether it is mediated through the consciousness of a particular character” (Simpson: 1993, p. 62). Where the narrator is only apparently taking an objective stance, and where deontic and epistemic modality take turns between what is socially right and what is personally desirable.
The analysis of the two intertexts through the lenses of Simpson’s grammar of point of view will hopefully help to clarify our intent to show the reaction of two women against the social imposition of two contemporary and only apparently distant worlds.
Essential Bibliography:
• Allen, G. Intertextuality, Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2011 (Second Edition).
• Austen, J. Pride and Prejudice, London: Penguin 2008 (1813).
• Bachtin, M. Estetica e Romanzo, Torino: Einaudi, 2001.
• Baron, S. The Birth of Intertextuality, Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2020.
• Simpson, P. Language, Ideology and Point of View, London: Routledge, 1993.
• Whitehead, C. The Underground Railroad, New York: Doubleday, 2016
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