The Creative Power of Language for Social Change

"The political imperative here is to reclaim understandings of space, time, language, and context from their frozen state within much of social and linguistic theory. The background of the everyday use of language has to be opened up for re-examination, turned from background into foreground, and thereby invested with new politics"

-Alastair Pennycook, Language as a Local Practice

I haven't read much Foucault, but it's tough (especially in a university) not to be steeped with his ideas. Here's what I've picked up along the way: Foucault, in step with neo-marxism, makes truth a commodity, the means for the production of which is in the possession of the powerful. "Discourse" is the system within which the daily patterns of human language are situated with relation to that truth. Language is always subject to a particular discourse that determines what people talk about, how they choose to express themselves, and even who they understand themselves to be. Foucault exposes the power driven discourses which give meaning to language, and in so doing re-situates the means for producing truth and consolidating power. His is a social theory which not only describes our world, but also seeks to change it by identifying those in control.

I have to admit that this theory has always left me feeling constrained, as I suppose it should. Call me individualistic or idealistic (or both), but the idea that what I do is controlled by social forces never seemed to fit with my experience. At the same time, I could never seem to deny it very intelligently.

Enter Alastair Pennycook, whose alternative understanding of language as a local practice is also infused with social theory and the potential for reflexive change. He argues, as can be deduced from the quote above, that the repeated actions of everyday life, or practices, are what drive the creation and meaning of language. Since language is itself one of these practices, it turns upon itself as an active, creative agent for change. Since socio-linguistic change is based on localized activity, power is not only found at the macro level, but the potential for self-determination also exists at the grassroots, even, potentially, at the individual level. Pennycook does not deny the existence of social control, but he maintains the potential for voluntary action and local change without undermining the reality of that control.

With all this mumbo-jumbo I'm reminded another thoughtful fellow's take on social-determinism and the possibility of free action. William Shakespeare wrote about it quite often, reflecting especially on the artist's role in resisting a pre-determined fate. Shakespeare mused that when we make art, as we always do when we engage in language, we are forming an alternative social reality, contrary to the one prescribed by fate. I think this alternative reality, where the world's power structures can be turned upside down, is what he is hinting at, for example, when Romeo and Juliet meet at the balcony under the cover of darkness. Through language, the young couple is able to create a world where there are no Montagues and Capulets, none of the patriarchy which predetermines the tragedy of the sunlit world. In the darkness, their words have the power to build something new and beautiful. While we all know the disaster which ensues, what is not as often recognized is the triumph of their world over the old social reality when, at the end of the play the lovers dig in their heels and cheat the fate which would drive them apart. Instead of perishing, they are immortalized when golden statues are erected in their memory, an artistic expression which forms a symbolic fixture in the new social order they have affected. Fate and freedom, death and immortality, as the grassroots power of activity meets with the power of social control, Shakespeare is able to affirm the existence of both without compromise.

When we engage in language as an artistic endeavor, we are not simply acting according to a prior framework, but on the basis of a local practice. Social forces are undoubtedly at play, and though they may constrict us to the point of making our role as actors all but forgotten, these forces do not eliminate the potential and ongoing reality of social change which is active at every level of society.

I think I like this Mr. Pennycook.

 Giulietta - Nereo Constantini

"...love-devouring death do what he dare--
It is enough I may call her mine."

Romeo, Romeo and Juliet, II.v.7-8