Language is contemplative. It is a chronicle that brings distinction to the mystery, breathes life into the past and gives it power. Language recreates, reports and refines. It is an oath and a curse, a promise a pledge. Language gives life to the dead, it is history and existing. It moves beyond linguistic ability, beyond construction. Language is moral, and it is political. A voice of the past echoing into the present and the present seeking solace of the past. It speaks of...
Language is contemplative. It is a chronicle that brings distinction to the mystery, breathes life into the past and gives it power. Language recreates, reports and refines. It is an oath and a curse, a promise a pledge. Language gives life to the dead, it is history and existing. It moves beyond linguistic ability, beyond construction. Language is moral, and it is political. A voice of the past echoing into the present and the present seeking solace of the past. It speaks of legends, myths and tradition, it builds relations. It is culture and philosophy. Language is cruel and malicious, domineering and fatal. It is communication. It is unique. It is tongue and lecture; it is oration. It is yours, and it is mine; dialect versus language, it is a sequence of noises. Allegory, poetic and prose. Language is symbolic and forges a relationship between power and identity.
The authority of the postcolonial voice as Zachary suggests; “Can only be understood in their utterance,” here we begin to understand that language can construct power, just by being recited. This essay will reflect on the triumvirate of language, identity, and power in a sequence of poems by d g okpik and M NourbeSe Philip. It will explore the relationship of language, power and identity through a combination of allegorical poetry; allegorical in the sense that both writers produce a narrative that brings meaning to, and makes revelations about the effects of postcolonialism, communicated with words, and significantly within the spaces, where words become redundant.