Research Article
Creole Practices as Prescriptive Guidelines for Language Didactics? A selective overview of Glissant’s thoughts on language and social identity.
Abstract
This article presents some of Glissant’s thoughts about the status and usage of the Creole language in relation to French and the consequences for the social imaginary in Martinique and in the Caribbean. The author formulates three thematic focal points: Archipelagic thinking, creolisation and dynamic changes of language forms in a context of power and resistance and, as a third point, the right to remain ‘opaque’ and the distinction between language form and ‘langage’. The author argues that we may detect a descriptive and a prescriptive dimension in Glissant’s thinking about language. In the following section, the author introduces different sociolinguistic studies of language practices in Martinique and the Caribbean giving a particular attention to the school system. The section ends with a brief discussion of how didactics in language teaching intersects with Glissant’s thinking. The conclusion presents a proposition of how Glissant’s thought may inspire sociolinguistics and didactics.
How to Cite:
Bojsen, H., 2014. Creole Practices as Prescriptive Guidelines for Language Didactics? A selective overview of Glissant’s thoughts on language and social identity.. Karib – Nordic Journal for Caribbean Studies, 1(1), p.4. DOI: http://doi.org/10.16993/karib.20
Published on
22 Oct 2014.
Peer Reviewed
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