ABSTRACT Randy Marfield, A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE 1981 BELIZEAN CONSTITUTION: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF HISTORY, RACE AND LANGUAGE (Under the direction of Dr. Kirk St. Amant) Department of English, April 2016 Building upon a variety of approaches in postcolonial discourse, this project performs a rhetorical analysis of the 1981 Belizean Constitution through the features of race and written Standard English. It contends that neither race nor written Standard English are suitable and reliable constructs of national identity in Belize, as each feature perpetuates a particular interpretation of Belizean national identity as formulated in accordance with hidden undertones of colonial power that have influenced, and continue to influence, a vernacular understanding of national identity in Belize. Each feature is also suggestive of continued colonial practices that once deemed Belize a colony of Britain and colonized through the institutions of that era. A specific focus on race and written Standard English allows for a close, rhetorical analysis on the 1981 Belizean Constitution, introducing these features as variables in the act of misrecognition, invisibility and human agency affecting the different ethnic groups in the country. In considering race and written Standard English as rhetorical constructs, this project demonstrates the degree of psychological aggression by the British, and now the Belizean government, which was a common practice and feature Belize’s colonial past. Though a critical look at race and written Standard English in the 1981 Belizean Constitution might be problematic, it holds the promise of reconstructing national identity as it pertains to the constitutional recognition of different ethnic groups in Belize, allowing the discursive space to reopen a dialogue on what it means to be Belizean. A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE 1981 BELIZEAN CONSTITUTION: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF HISTORY, RACE AND LANGUAGE A Dissertation Presented To the Faculty of the Department of English East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree in Rhetoric, Writing and Professional Communication Randy B. Marfield April, 2016 © 2016 Randy Bernard Marfield All rights reserved A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE 1981 BELIZEAN CONSTITUTION: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF HISTORY, RACE, AND LANGUAGE by Randy Marfield APPROVED BY: DISSERTATION CHAIR: _______________________________________________ Kirk St. Amant, Ph.D. COMMITTEE MEMBER: ______________________________________________ Michael Aceto, Ph.D. COMMITTEE MEMBER: ______________________________________________ Seodial Deena, Ph.D. COMMITTEE MEMBER: ______________________________________________ Wendy Sharer, Ph.D. ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CHAIR: ___________________________________ Don Palumbo, Ph.D. DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL: __________________________ Paul J. Gemperline, PhD DEDICATION To my family in Belize, from whom I have taken the most precious of things: time. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express deep and heartfelt appreciation of Kirk St. Amant whose patience with me throughout this long process has been tested. Whose levels of excitement, respect and involvement with this project matched my own. In him I saw the true spirit of academia, the dedication that can comes from one person’s belief and determination to change the world one step at a time, and one person at a time. Without him, my life as a PhD student and this dissertation would certainly not have been possible. I would like to thank my committee member Dr. Michael Aceto, whose passion as a Linguistics Professor and uncompromising dedication to fact and truth about the world, I will endeavor to follow from this point forward. I make this promise to him, that I will do my best to measure knowledge by experience and possibility, and not through theoretically fanciful styles that characterizes some spaces in academia. To Dr. Seodial Frank Deena I extend an offer of friendship. Frank has been with me as a respected professor and friend since I first came to East Carolina University in 2004 as an exchange student from Belize. He was a dedicated advisor between 2005 and 2007 while I worked towards a Master’s in Multicultural Literature. And now here, at the beginning of another phase of my academic career. Frank continues to dedicate himself to the cause of international students such as myself. As a fulfillment of Gay’s wishes, I hope the relationship between ECU’s Department of English and the University of Belize is maintained for years to come. To Dr. Wendy Sharer, whom I respect and admire greatly. As a feminist and the only woman on my committee, your input was invaluable. You too have seen me grow academically through the years at ECU. I feel fortunate to have met and learned from a person passionate and hopeful about the present and future. Finally, to my super friend in arms. My fellow Kung Fu Master in the battle to make sense of this world and questions authority. To the friend upon whom I can thoroughly rely. That saw me in pieces and brought me through whole. Dr. Alexis Poe Davis, how does one find the words? Table of Contents Title Page……………………………………………………………………………. i Copyright……………………………………………………………………………. ii Signature Page………………………………………………………………………. iii Dedication…………………………………………………………………………… iv Acknowledgment……………………………………………………………………. v Chapter One: Introduction…………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter Two: Method of Research Research Questions…………………………………………………… 11 Beginning the Research………………………………………………. 17 Theoretical Approaches to this Study………………………………… 23 Definition of Terms………………………………………………….... 31 Common Terms……………………………………………………….. 37 Proposed Outline/In Sum……………………………………………… 39 Chapter Three: Who’s Belizean History? Facing Gaps in the Narrative…………………………………………. 43 Reading Written History……………………………………………… 55 National Identity Written in the Margins……………………………... 63 Slavery “In Name”……………………………………………………. 80 Understanding the Connections between race, The Constitution and… 98 National Identity Chapter Four: Postcolonial Discourse and Belize Responses to Representations………………………………………….. 111 National Identity and being ethnic in Postcolonial Belize……………… 114 On being ethnic and being racial in Postcolonial Belize………………... 125 Understanding the Connections between National Identity and………... 134 Postcolonial Discourse in Belize Chapter Five: Race and Ethnic Invisibility in the Constitution Connecting the Concept of race to the Colonial……………………….. 142 ‘Race’ from the Ideology to the Constitution………………………….. 159 Where Constitutionality meets National Identity……………………… 168 Understanding the Connections between race, The Constitution and 174 National Identity Chapter Six: The Language, Identity and the Belizean Constitution On Standard English, Ethnic Languages and National Identity………….. 188 Responding to the influence of Standard English in Postcolonial Discourse 194 Colonial Documents, Standard English and Political Patterns in creating 204 National Identity Understanding the Connections between Standard English, the…………. 218 Constitution and National Identity Of Language as Symbolic Reminder……………………………………... 223 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………… 224 Chapter I INTRODUCTION The 1981 Belizean Constitution. It is a document that represents the source of Belizean political achievement in the country’s embattled history with the British Empire, and at the same time has the potential to be the source of Belize’s troubled state of national identity, reflecting the history, politics and language of Belize’s colonial past. Like the constitutions of other western and liberal countries, the 1981 Belizean Constitution provides the sociological venn- diagram, as it were, of socially connected parts logically encircling and representing multiple aspects of a democratically formed society: history, politics, law, and language to name a few. Each of these aspects, in their own right, contribute and struggle to claim, define and maintain the concept of a collective national identity. National identity can be perceived as what Foucault calls a “discursive formation”. From this, the purpose and function of national identity is to provide a sense of cohesion, of collectively sharing and socially accepting a distinct, relevant history, politics, and traditions forging commonalities that assert particular differences from other countries in the world. Where the political constitution of a people is concerned, national identity also reflects intellectual dimensions of that country’s politics, making the constitution relevant and sensitive to the sociopolitical history and social circumstances surrounding the document. The circumstances from which national identity is formed, from the histories of British colonial expansion, are particularly relevant in postcolonial societies; wherein lies the constitutional issue of forming a new and different national identity after independence has been declared. This dissertation focuses on this particular point in Belizean history, the moment of independence when the Constitution should mark Belizean national identity as unique, different and intellectually apart from English European culture, under which the country has been colonized for over two hundred years. Through looking at specific rhetorical features of the 1981 Belizean Constitution, this project hopes to illustrate the difficulty of separating from English European ideology presented as defining aspects of the Constitution. Edward Said (1993) argues in Culture