“Talk to me of Disaster”: Authoritative Discourse in the Schools

Abstract

This essay examines the ways in which authority comes to inhabit language and argues that schools are directly involved in the production and distribution of authoritative discourse. Central to the discussion is the example of language use in the French-speaking West Indies where there is an official language of authority which represents an official culture and where students are taught in a linguistic code (the French of France) which does not match the one of their everyday life (Creole).