Decolonial Discourses in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah: Transgressing Cultural and Linguistic Borders

transgressing cultural and linguistic borders

Abstract

This article aims to, drawing on fields such Decolonial Studies and Sociolinguistics, analyze how bilingual subjects are conceived in the novel Americanah, written by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Translanguaging, a linguistic phenomenon in which all an individual’s linguistic repertoire is used in order to conceive meaning, is an important element in shaping the main character’s subjectivity and a tool of resistance regarding processes of cultural assimilation and linguistic oppression. Therefore, it is regarded as a product of semiotic processes of meaning-making, and thus dependable on intersections experienced by bilingual subjects. In this sense, translanguaging is a vital element to the maintenance of cultural subjectivities by promoting more inclusive hybrid bilingual subjectivities.