Language as a Process of Othering in Amitav Ghosh's the Shadow Lines
In this tutorial I question the ideas of ‘language’ and ‘othering’, removing any preconceived notions from my mind, starting a fresh research and pondering process to form an opinion. I debate both sides of the coin, fully cognizant of the fact that it is more like a multi-faceted dice and that only two perceptions are not enough to discuss such an extensive issue.
In Ghosh’s fiction, space is not merely remembered as an imaginative construct but is represented as a domain of political and cultural encounters, encounters which actually shape the connection of different characters with territory and location. Hence, space is represented as a dynamic arrangement between people, places, cultures and societies. Shadow Lines wakes us up to the furiously changing geo-political scenarios and governmental regulations that have led to the formation of the modern world as we know it. The process of othering, i.e. the creation of a certain sense of "us" and "them" has inevitably been created between nations and people due to the creation of boundaries or ‘Shadow Lines’ as Ghosh puts it. In this paper, I aim to analyze the feasibility or the desirability of these intangible lines that separate us historically, culturally, linguistically and racially and the role of language in the creation of such lines.
Undoubtedly, language is the most basic form of human communication and interaction. Hence, language often takes centre stage with regards to the process of othering. A pertinent example lies in the construct of the mother tongue, since childhood it is instilled in us that one language is our mother tongue while all the others are secondary foreign entities in effect creating divisions between the languages themselves. Nelson Mandela once said "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, it goes to his heart.”
Interestingly, language need not necessarily be confined to the verbal and written forms, but
In Ghosh’s fiction, space is not merely remembered as an imaginative construct but is represented as a domain of political and cultural encounters, encounters which actually shape the connection of different characters with territory and location. Hence, space is represented as a dynamic arrangement between people, places, cultures and societies. Shadow Lines wakes us up to the furiously changing geo-political scenarios and governmental regulations that have led to the formation of the modern world as we know it. The process of othering, i.e. the creation of a certain sense of "us" and "them" has inevitably been created between nations and people due to the creation of boundaries or ‘Shadow Lines’ as Ghosh puts it. In this paper, I aim to analyze the feasibility or the desirability of these intangible lines that separate us historically, culturally, linguistically and racially and the role of language in the creation of such lines.
Undoubtedly, language is the most basic form of human communication and interaction. Hence, language often takes centre stage with regards to the process of othering. A pertinent example lies in the construct of the mother tongue, since childhood it is instilled in us that one language is our mother tongue while all the others are secondary foreign entities in effect creating divisions between the languages themselves. Nelson Mandela once said "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, it goes to his heart.”
Interestingly, language need not necessarily be confined to the verbal and written forms, but