Communications in Humanities Research
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 12, 20 November 2023
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“The Aphasia Syndrome”: The Language of Colonialism in Postcolonial English Writings
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Abstract
This paper is an examination of how colonial language and its (after) effects are represented in postcolonial English literature. Two literary works are examined: the Indian diplomat and novelist Vikas Swarup’s Slumdog Millionaire and the Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat’s short story “Children of the Sea”. Through close reading and comparative analysis, the paper concludes that there are three main symptoms of language abuse in the colonial context, which it labels as “The Aphasia Syndrome” (TAS). Briefly, the TAS includes (1) the imitation (parrot-talk) of the colonizer’s language as a means of accessing its power and resources; (2) the silencing or suppression of all colonized speech; and (3) the colony’s “nonsensical” ravings, which include the use of indigenous words and expressions without providing translations, as well as the reorganization and reappropriation of signifiers in the privileged language to create indecipherable expressions. By diagnosing TAS and its historical affections on colonized peoples, the paper hopes to excavate the anti-colonial potential inherent in indigenous languages and speech, while advocating a more promising prospect for reconciliation, communication, and healing.
Keywords
postcolonialism, world literature in English, Slumdog Millionaire, Krik? Krak!, national consciousness
References
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3. Ragbar, N. (2001). Imagining Post-colonialism as a Revolutionary Reality: Edwidge Danticat’s Opus as a Testimony of Haitian Women’s Survival through Narration. Journal of Haitian Studies, 7(2), 110-126. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41715104.
4. Danticat, E. (1996). Krik? Krak!. Soho Press.
5. Spivak, G. C. (1983). A Critique of Postcolonial Reason. In V. B. Leitch (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (3rd ed.) (pp. 2001-2012). W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
6. Swarup, V. (2005). Slumdog Millionaire. Scribner.
7. Bhabha, H. K. (1989). The Commitment to Theory. In V. B. Leitch (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (3rd ed.) (pp. 2152-2171). W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
8. Pyne-Timothy, H. (2001). Language, Theme and Tone in Edwidge Danticat’s Work. Journal of Haitian Studies, 7(2), 128-137. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41715105.
9. Fanon, F. (1961). The Wretched of the Earth. (C. Farrington, Trans.) In V. B. Leitch (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (3rd ed.) (pp. 1361-1367). W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities (ICGPSH 2023)
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-113-1
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-114-8
- Published Date
- 20 November 2023
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/12/20230024
- Copyright
- 20 November 2023
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited