Abstract
This article explores the different uses that Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat makes of code-switching in her last novel Claire of the Sea Light (2013). It also delves into the effects Danticat seeks to produce on her readers by the introduction of Creole words and expressions. While the incorporation of the mother tongue is not new in Danticat’s fiction, critics have paid little attention to the diverse purposes such a tongue purports to serve in her books and to the kind of responses it has aroused from her audience. Her uses of code-switching are observed to pursue various purposes: some purely mimetic, others more closely related to her stylistic ambitions, and still others out of motivations that may be deemed debatable, as they pertain to the “exoticization” of her homeland. Ultimately, the use of code-switching in Claire of the Sea Light should be viewed as one of the most effective strategies that diasporic writers envisage to satisfy a number of important socio-pragmatic and rhetorical functions that are usually expected in ethnic fiction. These strategies also aim to guide the (mainstream) readers’ affective responses to their work in the way(s) “minority” authors believe best suit their aesthetic and ethical goals.
Highlights
The two epigraphs at the outset of this article put forth two crucial ideas with respect to writers belonging to any diaspora
As Brubaker points out, this preservation of a distinctive identity is frequently made easier by the confrontation “vis-à-vis a host society” (2005: 6). This clash may be the result of processes of discrimination and exclusion—as has been the case of Haitians in the U.S.—or it may come from a deliberate resistance to assimilation by the group (Pamphile 2001)
One of the elements of that original identity that a diasporic writer may decide to preserve in order to keep alive a sense of belonging to a distinct community is the language, which, as has become apparent in this essay, fulfills more than just a communicative function
Summary
A significant number of readers of Edwidge Danticat’s last novel, Claire of the Sea Light (2013), have noted that some of the main strengths of the book are its accomplished hypnotic prose style, able to catch the most recondite agonies and yearnings of her characters, and its forthright realism wherein the author represents the social and economic woes buffeting her native country (Kakutani 2013; Casey 2013; Shamsie 2013). Safran (1991), Clifford (1994), Sommer (2004), Brubaker (2005) and Hall (2019) would surely justify the ‘jouissance’ that Danticat and her readers derive from these detailed descriptions by referring to the distinctive attachment that diasporic writers show to their homeland as a source of identity, values, and solidarity (see Safran 1991: 83-85) Still, these highly nostalgic parts of the text already incorporate clear signs of the immense suffering that a poor and exposed country may inflict on its inhabitants: the sea is seen as “unpredictable”, the land has been “eroded” and the narrow alleys off the main street are thought to be as dangerous as “thorns” (cf Kakutani 2013). As will be argued below, Danticat’s use of code-switching should be viewed as fulfilling some effective socio-pragmatic and rhetorical functions in her “fiercely beautiful new novel” (Tobar 2013); there are other “exoticizing” effects she seems to achieve which may prove a bit more controversial and which will be addressed in the last part of the essay
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