Beyond the Comfort Zone: Monolingual Ideologies, Bilingual U.S
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BEYOND THE COMFORT ZONE: MONOLINGUAL IDEOLOGIES, BILINGUAL U.S. LATINO TEXTS by SONJA S. BURROWS A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department ofRomance Languages and the Graduate School ofthe University of Oregon in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy June 2010 ii University of Oregon Graduate School Confirmation of Approval and Acceptance ofDissertation prepared by: Sonja Burrows Title: "Beyond the Comfort Zone: Monolingual Ideologies, Bilingual U.S. Latino Texts" This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree in the Department ofRomance Languages by: Robert Davis, Chairperson, Romance Languages Analisa Taylor, Member, Romance Languages Monique Balbuena, Member, Honors College Holly Cashman, Member, Not from U of 0 David Vazquez, Outside Member, English and Richard Linton, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies/Dean ofthe Graduate School for the University of Oregon. June 14,2010 Original approval signatures are on file with the Graduate School and the University of Oregon Libraries. 111 © 2010 Sonja S. Burrows IV An Abstract ofthe Dissertation of Sonja S. Burrows for the degree of Doctor ofPhilosophy in the Department ofRomance Languages to be taken June 2010 Title: BEYOND THE COMFORT ZONE: MONOLINGUAL IDEOLOGIES, BILINGUAL U.S. LATINO TEXTS Approved: ---------------------- Robert. 1. Davis This project examines reader reception ofU.S. Latino-authored narratives that engage in varying degrees oftextual code switching and bicultural belonging. The analysis builds on the argument that these narratives, as part ofa larger body ofminor literatures, playa role in revolutionizing traditional Anglo-American discourses of knowledge by marginalizing the monolingual and monocultural reader historically positioned as the prototype ofcultural literacy in the United States. This project further proposes that marginalization is achieved by a textual appropriation and structural weakening ofthe dominant language and culture via the creation ofa narrative space that privileges code switching to articulate bicultural identities. U.S. Latino texts that alternate between English and Spanish mirror the misunderstandings and failures of intelligibility in the multicultural situations they depict, thereby requiring the monolingual and monocultural reader to experience this unintelligibility first-hand. v In order to tackle broader questions about how these literary texts and their reception reflect what is at stake politically, nationally, and culturally for Latinos in the United States today, this interdisciplinary project draws upon a diversity ofperspectives originating from linguistics, literary analysis, sociology, and history to identifY how literary texts mirror bicultural identity for Latinos. As a part ofthis analysis, the project examines the history of Spanish language use in the United States, Latino immigration history, the standard language ideology privileging English monolingualism, the persistence ofbilingualism, oral and written code switching, the publishing industry, and analyses ofreader responses to bilingual texts based on survey data. In situating these histories within discussions about the bilingual, bicultural nature and reception ofthe U.S. Latino narrative, this project shows how the linguistic makeup and the subsequent receptivity ofthese texts mirror the bicultural identity and changing social positioning of the Latino population in the United States. VI CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Sonja S. Burrows PLACE OF BIRTH: Peterborough, New Hampshire DATE OF BIRTH: September 29, 1973 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University ofOregon, Eugene, Oregon School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont University ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor ofPhilosophy, Romance Languages, 2010, University ofOregon Master ofArts, Spanish, 2007, University ofOregon Master ofArts, TESOL, 1999, School for International Training Bachelor ofArts, English, 1996, University ofPennsylvania AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: U.S. Latino Literature, Culture, and Identity English-Spanish Bilingualism, Code Switching, and Spanish in the U.S. Teaching Spanish as a Heritage Language Foreign Language Teaching Methodology and Second Language Acquisition PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department ofRomance Languages, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 2004-2010 Graduate Teaching Fellow, Center for Applied Second Language Studies, University ofOregon, Eugene, Oregon, 2006-2007 English Language Professor, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea, 2000-2002 English Language Professor, Universidad del Mar, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2000 Vll ACKJ\TOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Professors Robert L. Davis, David 1. Vazquez, Analisa Taylor, and Monique R. Balbuena, ofthe University of Oregon, and Holly R. Cashman, ofthe University ofNew Hampshire, for their assistance in the preparation ofthis manuscript. In addition, special thanks are due to the Department ofRomance Languages at the University of Oregon for their support ofthis project from its earliest stages of development through to its final iteration. I also thank the many scholars listed in these pages who have paved the way to make this research possible. V1l1 To my husband and children, for being what matters most. IX TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. SPANISH-SPEAKING IDENTITIES IN THE UNITED STATES....................... 14 Introduction............................................................................................................ 14 Selective Memory and Reconstructing the Past..................................................... 15 A BriefHistory ofthe Spanish Language in the United States 18 Racial Formation and Alien Citizenship in the United States 24 Latinidad: The Politics ofIdentity and Identifiers 30 The Emergence ofLatino Literary and Cultural Studies 39 Conclusion 43 III. LANGUAGE AND POWER................................................................................. 46 Introduction............................................................................................................ 46 Language Change: A Resisted Inevitability 47 Standard Language: Myth and Ideology................................................................ 50 Language Contact, Bilingualism, and a Nation Threatened.... 57 Bilingual Society/Monolingual State..................................................................... 63 Bilingualism from a Bilingual Perspective 69 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 72 IV. CODE SWITCHING 74 x Chapter Page Introduction . 74 From Hodge Podge to Language . 75 The Linguistic ABC's of Code Switching . 78 Social Motivations and Interactional Implications ofCode Switching . 83 Theoretical Debates in Code Switching Research . 88 Textual Code Switching .. 92 Code Switching as a Resource in U.S. Latino Narrative . 95 V. THE "MINOR" IN U.S. LATINO LITERATURE .. 103 What Is Minor Literature? . 103 U.S. Latino Literature as Minor . 107 The Latino Writer's Linguistic Micro-Hamlet . 110 Weird English . 115 Spanish Made Easy . 119 Favoring the Bilingual . 124 Radically Bilingual . 132 Conclusion . 136 VI. THE MARKETING AND PUBLISHING OF LATINIDAD . 138 The Myth ofthe "Authentic" Text . 138 The Machinations ofthe Publishing Industry .. 141 What People Read . 144 More Than Meets the Eye: The Writer's Perspective . 149 Xl Chapter Page Latino Literature: The Flavor ofthe Month? 154 Language(s) Fit to Print 158 (Il)literacy in the United States 160 VII. THE EFFECTS OF BILINGUAL LITERATURE ON (MOSTLY) MONOLINGUAL READERS 163 Theory Meets Evidence: The Triangulation ofLiterary Studies with Linguistic Research 163 Language Ego Permeability and Reader Reception............................................... 166 An Empirical Examination ofReader Receptivity of Spanish in .Tunot Diaz's The BriefWondrous Life ofOscar Wao 169 Introduction to Study 171 Materials and Methods Used in Study............................................. 173 Results and Interpretations ofStudy............................ 177 Discussion and Conclusion ofStudy.............. 180 Immigrant for a Day 184 Pedagogical Implications: Code Switching Narratives as a Path to Transformative Learning 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY 192 Xll LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Equivalence Constraint.......................................................................................... 80 2. Free-Morpheme Constraint.................................................................................... 81 3. Receptivity 178 4. Spanish Language Proficiency and Receptivity.................................................... 179 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This project is about the challenge to monolingual ideology posed by contemporary U.S. Latino l narrative that engages in code switching, or the alternation between two languages within single texts. Specifically, it examines the steps U.S. Latino writers take toward inscribing, and thereby legitimizing, the practice ofcode switching in mainstream consciousness. Many bilingual U.S. Latino writers create texts that not only alternate between English and Spanish but also articulate a bicultural identity, one that encompasses the cultures linked with each code or language. The bilingual and bicultural texture ofmany works created by these writers, when examined within the framework of what Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari term minor literature,