Book Section
Juliane Prade-Weiss
Scarspeak
Thinking the Mother Tongue as a Formative Mark
This chapter proposes the scar as a productive image to conceptualize the relation of speakers to the particular language otherwise called mother tongue, native or first language. Thinking of this relation in terms of a scar avoids the biopolitical implications of concepts derived from the context of family and birth that have, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, come to present language as basis of a nation state. The image of the scar also avoids the biographical normalization and linguistic hierarchization implied in the term first language, as both are equally important biopolitical strategies of forming individuals and communities. Thinking of the mother tongue in terms of a scar emphasizes the intensity of lasting formation and identification entailed by acquiring this particular language, and it highlights the violence inherent to these processes that tends to be covered up by the naturalizing and family-related imagery of native or mother tongue as well as by the favour implied in the term first language.
Keywords: multilingualism; trauma; scar; lament; origin of language; language acquisition; Freud; Joyce; Veteranyi
Title |
Scarspeak
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Subtitle |
Thinking the Mother Tongue as a Formative Mark
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Author(s) |
Juliane Prade-Weiss
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Identifier | |
Description |
This chapter proposes the scar as a productive image to conceptualize the relation of speakers to the particular language otherwise called mother tongue, native or first language. Thinking of this relation in terms of a scar avoids the biopolitical implications of concepts derived from the context of family and birth that have, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, come to present language as basis of a nation state. The image of the scar also avoids the biographical normalization and linguistic hierarchization implied in the term first language, as both are equally important biopolitical strategies of forming individuals and communities. Thinking of the mother tongue in terms of a scar emphasizes the intensity of lasting formation and identification entailed by acquiring this particular language, and it highlights the violence inherent to these processes that tends to be covered up by the naturalizing and family-related imagery of native or mother tongue as well as by the favour implied in the term first language.
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Is Part Of | |
Place |
Berlin
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Publisher |
ICI Berlin Press
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Date |
4 September 2023
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Subject |
multilingualism
trauma
scar
lament
origin of language
language acquisition
Freud
Joyce
Veteranyi
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Rights |
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Language |
en-GB
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page start |
105
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page end |
126
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Source |
Untying the Mother Tongue, ed. by Antonio Castore and Federico Dal Bo, Cultural Inquiry, 26 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2023), pp. 105–26
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Cite as:
Juliane Prade-Weiss, ‘Scarspeak: Thinking the Mother Tongue as a Formative Mark’, in Untying the Mother Tongue, ed. by Antonio Castore and Federico Dal Bo, Cultural Inquiry, 26 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2023), pp. 105-26 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-26_5>