Establishing hegemony through language : first and second-generation American immigrants

Abstract

This project aims to show how an immigrants language acquisition affects his or her identity and positions him or her in society. This identity crisis and social stratification of the individual according to the quality/purity of their language is highlighted in literature, and different language varieties are being used in contemporary novels, which necessitate investigation. To do this, I have chosen to focus on two American novels that belong to the subgenre of immigrant literature: Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club and John Okadas No-No Boy. These novels trace the generational gap between the first and second generations of Asian immigrants. The writers, being aware of the effect of new language acquisition on the human psyche and personality, manipulate language to their own purposes. Varieties of English, together with words that belong to native languages, are used in these novels and are given major roles in shifting the plot and achieving hierarchical and hegemonic effects. This study poses the question: how does English language acquisition define the experience of an immigrant for the first- and second-generation immigrants as evidenced in these novels?.