Linguistic Means of Decolonization in Dubliners: Economic and Social Contexts

Abstract

Language has the power to produce implicit interpretations revealed through deeper analysis of what readers know and what characters say explicitly. Based on many characteristics such as social and economic contexts in which evolve characters in James Joyce’s Dubliners, different interpretations can be made. These will eventually demonstrate how language can decolonize people through their attempt to change or improve their economic and social status. Knowing such contexts also helps readers understand and learn that what characters say can carry a different meaning. In fact, context reflects what surrounds the characters and to which social or economic class they belong. Hence, the characters’ language and what they utter explicitly will reflect their social positions. Additionally, belonging to upper or lower class also indicates colonized and colonizer relationship but does not limit the former’s decolonial linguistic attempts. This article will thus prove that the language used by the colonized is a powerful means to achieve decolonization linguistically and that economic and social rank alone do not define nor hinder their capabilities.