Pratt with a side of Anzaldua Mary Louise Pratt introduces the term “auto-ethnography” to define a piece of writing that people believe describes themselves based off the representation others have made of them. With this in mind, we can read Gloria Anzaldua’s text, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” as an example of an autoethnographic text. In addition to being an auto-ethnography, this text gives many examples of a process called transculturation. This is a process where members of marginal groups select and invent based off materials transmitted by a dominant discourse.Dominant discourse is defined as the way a society privileges one cultural imperative over others. Another word to keep in mind is marginalization. This is a social standing regulated
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Anzaldua grew up in southwest texas, borderland between America and Mexico. As a result, she experienced all aspects of a contact zone. From being part of the dominant discourse to being looked at as the other. Having grown up between two cultures, Gloria is able to bounce back and forth from one language to another. She shows this bilinguality throughout her essay jumping back and forth between english and spanish. She states,” Es una falta de respeto to talk back to one’s mother or father. (27) Meaning, it’s disrespectful to talk back to one’s parents. In school, Gloria was forced to learn english. It was a requirement for all chicanas to take two speech classes to get rid of their accents. Gloria uses her essay to inform readers that , “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out.” (26) In most cases throughout Gloria's life, the dominant culture spoke English and as a result she was forced to speak perfect English. (english without an accent).Gloria also states in her essay, “Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having translate...my tongue will be illegitimate.” (30) This coincides with Pratt's idea of privilege. According to Pratt, privilege implies exclusion. Thus, if one culture privilege eating oranges and another culture privileges eating apples, the dominant discourse of the orange eaters will look …show more content…
One example from her text was when she had first heard the word “nosotras”. In the chicanas language, nosotros is a word used whether you're male or female. She claims she was shocked during a conversation between two women when she had first heard the word. She was unfamiliar with the word because no one, especially men, referred to a group of women with the word nosotras. Gloria makes a statement that, “ Language is a male discourse.” (27) In this case, the dominant discourse would be the spanish speaking males. As a result, the way they speak gets passed down to the marginalized groups. This is one effect of transculturalization.This brings up the whole idea of Pratt’s argument in that the dominant discourse is known to having power and authority over a marginalized group. So male dominance pass down their own rituals to a marginalized group. Over time Gloria states, “We are robbed of our female being by the masculine plural.”(27) In the Chicanas language, one group of women are represented by the masculine word, nosotros. Thus, in any situation, a group of people in spanish means
Anzaldua grew up in southwest texas, borderland between America and Mexico. As a result, she experienced all aspects of a contact zone. From being part of the dominant discourse to being looked at as the other. Having grown up between two cultures, Gloria is able to bounce back and forth from one language to another. She shows this bilinguality throughout her essay jumping back and forth between english and spanish. She states,” Es una falta de respeto to talk back to one’s mother or father. (27) Meaning, it’s disrespectful to talk back to one’s parents. In school, Gloria was forced to learn english. It was a requirement for all chicanas to take two speech classes to get rid of their accents. Gloria uses her essay to inform readers that , “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out.” (26) In most cases throughout Gloria's life, the dominant culture spoke English and as a result she was forced to speak perfect English. (english without an accent).Gloria also states in her essay, “Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having translate...my tongue will be illegitimate.” (30) This coincides with Pratt's idea of privilege. According to Pratt, privilege implies exclusion. Thus, if one culture privilege eating oranges and another culture privileges eating apples, the dominant discourse of the orange eaters will look …show more content…
One example from her text was when she had first heard the word “nosotras”. In the chicanas language, nosotros is a word used whether you're male or female. She claims she was shocked during a conversation between two women when she had first heard the word. She was unfamiliar with the word because no one, especially men, referred to a group of women with the word nosotras. Gloria makes a statement that, “ Language is a male discourse.” (27) In this case, the dominant discourse would be the spanish speaking males. As a result, the way they speak gets passed down to the marginalized groups. This is one effect of transculturalization.This brings up the whole idea of Pratt’s argument in that the dominant discourse is known to having power and authority over a marginalized group. So male dominance pass down their own rituals to a marginalized group. Over time Gloria states, “We are robbed of our female being by the masculine plural.”(27) In the Chicanas language, one group of women are represented by the masculine word, nosotros. Thus, in any situation, a group of people in spanish means