Subjecting Sentences: Syntax and Power in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong’s semi-autobiographical novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous opens as a letter to the narrator, Little Dog’s, mother—it is a letter she’ll never be able to read, as she is illiterate in both her Vietnamese mother tongue and the limited English she has learned following her immigration...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Columbia University Libraries
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Meliora |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/meliora/article/view/8725 |
| _version_ | 1811289336001331200 |
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| author | Sophia D'Urso |
| author_facet | Sophia D'Urso |
| author_sort | Sophia D'Urso |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Ocean Vuong’s semi-autobiographical novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous opens as a letter to the narrator, Little Dog’s, mother—it is a letter she’ll never be able to read, as she is illiterate in both her Vietnamese mother tongue and the limited English she has learned following her immigration to America. Little Dog, having learned both languages, resists the rigidity of their respective, repressive syntaxes; if syntax functions as ideology—as an imagined set of rules and processes which govern a structure of sentences within a language and, in turn, the subjected bodies which are interpellated by the literal and subsequently constructed Subject of such sentences—then Little Dog opposes such ideology by subverting the hierarchical Subject/subject relationships created within the subject/object sentence structure. Rather than align with Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralist argument towards language as based in such hierarchical binary oppositions, Little Dog searches for a new language—one that can truly act as a bridge, rather than a border—often intentionally breaking prosaic form and grammar rules in an effort to unearth it.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T03:53:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-63d0927833b44cd6b6996062f92c7d52 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2767-7052 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T03:53:16Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Columbia University Libraries |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Meliora |
| spelling | doaj.art-63d0927833b44cd6b6996062f92c7d522022-12-22T03:03:44ZengColumbia University LibrariesMeliora2767-70522022-01-011210.52214/meliora.v1i2.8725Subjecting Sentences: Syntax and Power in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Sophia D'Urso0Barnard College Ocean Vuong’s semi-autobiographical novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous opens as a letter to the narrator, Little Dog’s, mother—it is a letter she’ll never be able to read, as she is illiterate in both her Vietnamese mother tongue and the limited English she has learned following her immigration to America. Little Dog, having learned both languages, resists the rigidity of their respective, repressive syntaxes; if syntax functions as ideology—as an imagined set of rules and processes which govern a structure of sentences within a language and, in turn, the subjected bodies which are interpellated by the literal and subsequently constructed Subject of such sentences—then Little Dog opposes such ideology by subverting the hierarchical Subject/subject relationships created within the subject/object sentence structure. Rather than align with Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralist argument towards language as based in such hierarchical binary oppositions, Little Dog searches for a new language—one that can truly act as a bridge, rather than a border—often intentionally breaking prosaic form and grammar rules in an effort to unearth it. https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/meliora/article/view/8725Ocean VuongOn Earth We're Briefly GorgeousSemanticsLanguageSyntaxSaussure |
| spellingShingle | Sophia D'Urso Subjecting Sentences: Syntax and Power in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Meliora Ocean Vuong On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Semantics Language Syntax Saussure |
| title | Subjecting Sentences: Syntax and Power in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous |
| title_full | Subjecting Sentences: Syntax and Power in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous |
| title_fullStr | Subjecting Sentences: Syntax and Power in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous |
| title_full_unstemmed | Subjecting Sentences: Syntax and Power in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous |
| title_short | Subjecting Sentences: Syntax and Power in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous |
| title_sort | subjecting sentences syntax and power in ocean vuong s on earth we re briefly gorgeous |
| topic | Ocean Vuong On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Semantics Language Syntax Saussure |
| url | https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/meliora/article/view/8725 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sophiadurso subjectingsentencessyntaxandpowerinoceanvuongsonearthwerebrieflygorgeous |