• Journal of English Language & Literature
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.1311-1337
• /
• 2010

This paper deals with one of the hottest debates in the history of the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) since its inception in the late 1960s. In 1998 at Hawai'i, the AAAS awarded Lois-Ann Yamanaka its Fiction Award for her novel Blu's Hanging, only to have this award protested. The point at issue was the inappropriate representation of Filipino American characters called "Human Rats" in the novel. This event divided the association into two groups: one criticizing the novel for the problematic portrayal of Filipinos in colonial Hawai'i, and the other defending it from the criticism in the name of aesthetic freedom. Such a "crisis of representation" in Asian American identity reflects on the ways in which local Hawaiians are positioned in the complicate power dynamic between oppositional Hawaiian identity and cosmopolitan diasporic identity within the larger framework of Asian American pan-ethnic identity. The controversial event triggered the eruption of Asian Americans' anxiety over the identity-bounded nation of Asian America where intra-racial classism and conflict have been at play, which are primary themes of Blu's Hanging. This paper shows how Yamanaka's Blu's Hanging becomes so disturbing a work to prevent the hegemonic formality of Asian America identity from being fully dogmatic. Ultimately, it contradicts the political unconscious of the reading public and unmasked its false consciousness by engendering a "free subjective intervention" in the ideological reality of colonial Hawai'i.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.7-30
• /
• 2023

Nigeria is a country with multiple ethnic groups; as a result, English language is used as a lingua franca to enhance information flow. Despite this, the Indigenous languages of communities are mostly used for interactions, even in university environments thereby affecting smooth interaction for those who do not understand them. This study therefore investigated the impact of being a linguistic outsider on information access, learning and social wellbeing of students. Descriptive research of a case study was used for this study. The population for this study consisted of non-Yoruba indigenous students. Judgmental sampling technique was used to select 50 non-indigenous students; structured interview was used. Results showed that Yoruba indigenous language was used lightly in the classroom and heavily outside the classroom, with mixtures of pidgin and English languages. It was found that being a linguistic outsider had a negative influence on information access. However it was not a total dependent factor to social wellbeing of students who desire for their various languages to be predominantly used and for them to enjoy equal benefits with Yoruba indigenes. This study also revealed that being a linguistic outsider does not have negative influence on academic learning. It was recommended that the stakeholders in university management promote the complete use of English language in the classroom while students should be encouraged to interpret Yoruba language when spoken in the midst of non-indigenes.