Regaining a place from which to speak and be heard: In search of a response to the “violence of voicelessness”

This paper is concerned with linguistic vulnerability to man-made trauma, displacement, and exclusion, as well as with strategies of resilience that valorise socially-depreciated resources within the linguistic repertoire. It focuses on an interview carried out within a transdisciplinary project whi...

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Main Author: Busch, Brigitta
Format: Article
Language:Afrikaans
Published: Stellenbosch University 2016-12-01
Series:Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus
Subjects:
Online Access:https://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/675
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author Busch, Brigitta
author_facet Busch, Brigitta
author_sort Busch, Brigitta
collection DOAJ
description This paper is concerned with linguistic vulnerability to man-made trauma, displacement, and exclusion, as well as with strategies of resilience that valorise socially-depreciated resources within the linguistic repertoire. It focuses on an interview carried out within a transdisciplinary project which – from a medical, a psycho-therapeutical and a linguistic perspective – addressed interrelations between multilingualism, trauma and resilience. A close reading of the biographical narrative raises three main points. First, how a life in permanent precarity and suspense is lived as “violence of voicelessness” (Anthonissen) – as the loss of any acknowledged position from which one can relate oneself to the world by social action and interaction. Second, how the pressure of exclusion contributes to re-invoking earlier traumatic or stressful experiences. Finally, how (sometimes unexpected) linguistic resources can strengthen resilience. Such resources include an awareness of the potential that lies in what I would call a “heteroglossia of survival”, in the possibility of mobilizing means of expression associated with the semiotic dimension of language (Kristeva), and in the struggle for recognition through which it becomes possible to re- position oneself, to regain a place from which to speak.
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spelling doaj.art-6f3e857e6bb14ea28e92928dd346df942022-12-22T01:16:42ZafrStellenbosch UniversityStellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus1726-541X2224-33802016-12-0149031733010.5842/49-0-675Regaining a place from which to speak and be heard: In search of a response to the “violence of voicelessness”Busch, Brigitta0University of ViennaThis paper is concerned with linguistic vulnerability to man-made trauma, displacement, and exclusion, as well as with strategies of resilience that valorise socially-depreciated resources within the linguistic repertoire. It focuses on an interview carried out within a transdisciplinary project which – from a medical, a psycho-therapeutical and a linguistic perspective – addressed interrelations between multilingualism, trauma and resilience. A close reading of the biographical narrative raises three main points. First, how a life in permanent precarity and suspense is lived as “violence of voicelessness” (Anthonissen) – as the loss of any acknowledged position from which one can relate oneself to the world by social action and interaction. Second, how the pressure of exclusion contributes to re-invoking earlier traumatic or stressful experiences. Finally, how (sometimes unexpected) linguistic resources can strengthen resilience. Such resources include an awareness of the potential that lies in what I would call a “heteroglossia of survival”, in the possibility of mobilizing means of expression associated with the semiotic dimension of language (Kristeva), and in the struggle for recognition through which it becomes possible to re- position oneself, to regain a place from which to speak.https://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/675traumaresiliencevoicedisplacementprecarityheteroglossialinguistic repertoirelived experience of language
spellingShingle Busch, Brigitta
Regaining a place from which to speak and be heard: In search of a response to the “violence of voicelessness”
Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus
trauma
resilience
voice
displacement
precarity
heteroglossia
linguistic repertoire
lived experience of language
title Regaining a place from which to speak and be heard: In search of a response to the “violence of voicelessness”
title_full Regaining a place from which to speak and be heard: In search of a response to the “violence of voicelessness”
title_fullStr Regaining a place from which to speak and be heard: In search of a response to the “violence of voicelessness”
title_full_unstemmed Regaining a place from which to speak and be heard: In search of a response to the “violence of voicelessness”
title_short Regaining a place from which to speak and be heard: In search of a response to the “violence of voicelessness”
title_sort regaining a place from which to speak and be heard in search of a response to the violence of voicelessness
topic trauma
resilience
voice
displacement
precarity
heteroglossia
linguistic repertoire
lived experience of language
url https://spilplus.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/675
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