Nativization strategies: Nigerianisms at the intersection of ideology and gender in Achebe's fiction

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The present paper employs the semiotic distinction between underdetermined and overdetermined language use to probe the nativization of English in Achebe's fiction. Language use is underdetermined when it subverts the hegemony of English through the strategy of nativization of linguistic forms that are altered to have different cultural overtones when used by African and other non‐native English speakers and writers. Conversely, an overdetermined language use relates to heteroglossic social discourses arising from conflicts of race, class, gender, and ethnicity, especially in the postcolonial literary context. The study points out that although Achebe has done more than any other African writer in indigenizing the English language in the African literary context, his failure to interrogate the patriarchal linguistic structures of his world makes his rhetoric complicit with the English language's devaluation and semantic pejoration of the female Other in the Nigerian context. However, given the power of English to consolidate male dominance and give men representational prominence, more studies are needed on how non‐verbal communication and certain linguistic devices and discursive formations mask the ingrained patriarchal prejudices not only in Achebe's writing but also in postcolonial English literatures in general.