Language of the Oppressed: Boon of Nature and Curse of Humans in the Life of a Refugee

• Authors: Lavanya N. , Anjumkhan M.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Refugees all over the world are pushed to a situation of being afraid to use their cultural identities as a result of the cruelty of oppression. Language is central in the identification of the oppressed group and this in turn, enhances the fear of using their language in public. Nature has always been a greater element than humankind, in treating all living things in the world with love and respect. Using silence as its language of communication, it provides itself in abundance to everyone and never discriminates anyone. This essay focuses on comparing and differentiating the life of refugees as a result of love existing in nature and hatred present in humankind, with reference to the memoir ‘Little Daughter’ by Zoya Phan. The memoir is analysed with an anthropogenic view of how a human with power and superiority can play a major role in destroying nature as well as other humans. It explains how the power of nature takes humans towards equality but, the power of humans is a trip towards destruction caused due to discrimination. The theoretical framework is constructed based on the essay ‘That Which You Are Denying Us’ by Lyndsey Stonebridge, which explains the refugees’ problems of being voiceless ones with no right to any language. The essay is categorized under three sub- headings ‘Life of the oppressed’, ‘Love of nature’ and ‘Language of the voiceless’ to examine the effect of language restriction, equality in nature and the use of English as the language of liberation by the refugees with reference to the select memoir.

Keywords

EN

Refugees; Oppression; Language; Nature; English

• Publisher: Research Committee Language and Society
• Journal: Language, Discourse & Society
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 9 (2)
• Pages: 81-88

Dates

published

2021-12-30

Contributors

author

Lavanya N.

author

Anjumkhan M.

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Notes

EN