Coloniality of Narratives and the Decolonial Potential of Language - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Coloniality of Narratives and the Decolonial Potential of Language

Andrea Nadal IAS: Global Studies concentration Faculty Advisor: Margaret Griesse University of Washington, Tacoma

Case Studies

 America

 Experience Growing up Second Generation

 Brazil

 Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil - Urban Terena Tribe

 South Africa

 Cape Town / Philippi, South Africa - Chrysalis Academy

Theoretical Frameworks

 Border studies

 Gloria E. Anzaldúa

 Languaging

 Walter Mignolo

Second Generation

• I am of Puerto Rican and Anglo Descent:
• My father came to America from Puerto Rico

in grade school.

• Learned English after coming to America
• My mother is White American
• Only speaks English

Image Description: My brother and I in Puerto Rico, the only time I have set foot on the Archipelago. Age 12.

Urban Terena Tribe

• Urban Reservation:
• Figuratively and literally at the

border

• Physical Border:
• Situated within a Brazilian

town

• Border between languages:
• Reservation:
• Terena Language
• Town:
• Portuguese

Image Description: Painting in the community area of the Reservation.

Chrysalis Academy

• Job Skill Training Academy:
• Border between Languages & Culture

– Home & Academy

• Home: IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Afrikaans
• Connection to family &

culture, as well as history

• Academy: English
• Movement, free of a burden of

history

Image Description: Staff from the Academy and my Study Abroad group on Introduction day for the

• students. On this day all of the staff

wears the uniform as a show of solidarity.

Solution

 Language does not need to be attached to a particular geographical space, it does not need to belong to a single people

 We can begin to decolonize languages in this way

 There is power in subversion, and in claiming one’s positionality

 Create Language as your own, in spite of its history or origin