Psychic and Ethical Dimensions of Language Loss

Psychic and Ethical Dimensions of Language Loss Films

Journal of Intercultural Studies

  • Author(s): Bohórquez, Paola
  • Secondary Author(s): LaFlamme, M
  • Tertiary Author(s): LaFlamme, M
  • Published: 2009
  • Publisher: PAW Media
  • Volume: 30

Abstract: This paper examines the structural and contextual registers of the experience of language loss in the process of translingual subject formation. Using the psychoanalytic theory of bereavement, the paper argues that the psychic and social obstacles against mourning one's monolingual condition foster melancholic formations that manifest as recalcitrant enclavism in the language of origin or furious monolingual assimilation into the host language. In examining the socio-cultural conditions that hinder or facilitate the work of mourning, the paper proposes that productive bereavement of language loss requires some form of intersubjective witnessing. Accordingly, I explore the potential of translingual texts and performances to both provide viable models of identification for mourning linguistic injury and to increase our social awareness of the challenges entailed in commuting between languages.

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