Jeehyun Lim
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823275304
- eISBN:
- 9780823277032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823275304.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Based on the premise that the growth of bilingualism in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century is a consequence of post-1965 immigration, the chapter presents the book’s dual ...
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Based on the premise that the growth of bilingualism in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century is a consequence of post-1965 immigration, the chapter presents the book’s dual objective of tracing the effects of the social changes to bilingualism in cultural representations of bilingual personhood and of querying how these representations illuminate the social lives of bilingual persons. Crucial to the book’s discussion of bilingual personhood is the two poles of good and bad bilingualism, of bilingualism as asset and liability, which emerges in the social perception of language difference as it intersects with racial difference. Relying on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, but also supplementing it with ideas of symbolic capital that emerge in the debates on bilingualism, the introduction makes a case for how the idea of bilingualism as human capital shows the assimilation of Asian Americans and Latinos into racial capitalism. The story of bilingual personhood shows that the economy of liberal personhood allows for a split between desirable and undesirable bilinguals. The introduction suggests a structure of feeling in Asian American and Latino literature around this polarizing economy of language difference through which dimensions of a liberal subject’s life, such as inclusion, belonging, rights and entitlement, are contemplated and questioned.Less
Based on the premise that the growth of bilingualism in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century is a consequence of post-1965 immigration, the chapter presents the book’s dual objective of tracing the effects of the social changes to bilingualism in cultural representations of bilingual personhood and of querying how these representations illuminate the social lives of bilingual persons. Crucial to the book’s discussion of bilingual personhood is the two poles of good and bad bilingualism, of bilingualism as asset and liability, which emerges in the social perception of language difference as it intersects with racial difference. Relying on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, but also supplementing it with ideas of symbolic capital that emerge in the debates on bilingualism, the introduction makes a case for how the idea of bilingualism as human capital shows the assimilation of Asian Americans and Latinos into racial capitalism. The story of bilingual personhood shows that the economy of liberal personhood allows for a split between desirable and undesirable bilinguals. The introduction suggests a structure of feeling in Asian American and Latino literature around this polarizing economy of language difference through which dimensions of a liberal subject’s life, such as inclusion, belonging, rights and entitlement, are contemplated and questioned.
Jeehyun Lim
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823275304
- eISBN:
- 9780823277032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823275304.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Chapter two examines the rhetorical and social construction of bilingual personhood as part of the American Dream through the debates on public bilingualism. The debates on bilingual education and ...
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Chapter two examines the rhetorical and social construction of bilingual personhood as part of the American Dream through the debates on public bilingualism. The debates on bilingual education and bilingualism as civil right in the 1960s and 1970s centered on what language befitted an American citizen concordant with the vision of the American Dream. The argument against public bilingualism viewed English as the colorblind language of the American Dream whereas the argument for public bilingualism presented the idea that the American Dream can be in many languages. While these two poles of opposition and advocacy are well-rehearsed positions in the social debates on bilingualism, both positions presuppose possessive individualism in the construction of bilingual personhood, which limits the parameters of public bilingualism.Less
Chapter two examines the rhetorical and social construction of bilingual personhood as part of the American Dream through the debates on public bilingualism. The debates on bilingual education and bilingualism as civil right in the 1960s and 1970s centered on what language befitted an American citizen concordant with the vision of the American Dream. The argument against public bilingualism viewed English as the colorblind language of the American Dream whereas the argument for public bilingualism presented the idea that the American Dream can be in many languages. While these two poles of opposition and advocacy are well-rehearsed positions in the social debates on bilingualism, both positions presuppose possessive individualism in the construction of bilingual personhood, which limits the parameters of public bilingualism.
Jeehyun Lim
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823275304
- eISBN:
- 9780823277032
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823275304.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Bilingual Brokers examines bilingual personhood in Asian American and Latino literature through social debates on bilingualism. Instead of arguing for or against bilingualism this study focuses on ...
More
Bilingual Brokers examines bilingual personhood in Asian American and Latino literature through social debates on bilingualism. Instead of arguing for or against bilingualism this study focuses on the contingencies under which bilingualism is taken as good or bad to bring into high relief the function of language as capital in these debates. Behind the discourse of American identity, economic calculations and rationale played a significant role in challenging the long-held popular view of bilingualism as a liability. The emergence and recognition of Asian American and Latino literature take place against the backdrop of these debates on bilingualism as the place where social anxieties about American identity in the face of new immigration and globalization are worked out. Interweaving the social significance of language as human capital and the literary significance of English as the language of cultural capital, Bilingual Brokers traces a structure of feeling around the dual meaning of bilingualism as liability and asset in Asian American and Latino literature. In literary representations, bilingual personhood illustrates a regime of flexible inclusion where an economic calculus of value for racialized subjects crystallizes at the intersections of language and racial difference and is used in deliberations of social worthiness. By pointing to the nexus of race, capital, and language as the focal point of negotiations of difference and inclusion, Bilingual Brokers probes liberalism’s fault lines for racialized subjects.Less
Bilingual Brokers examines bilingual personhood in Asian American and Latino literature through social debates on bilingualism. Instead of arguing for or against bilingualism this study focuses on the contingencies under which bilingualism is taken as good or bad to bring into high relief the function of language as capital in these debates. Behind the discourse of American identity, economic calculations and rationale played a significant role in challenging the long-held popular view of bilingualism as a liability. The emergence and recognition of Asian American and Latino literature take place against the backdrop of these debates on bilingualism as the place where social anxieties about American identity in the face of new immigration and globalization are worked out. Interweaving the social significance of language as human capital and the literary significance of English as the language of cultural capital, Bilingual Brokers traces a structure of feeling around the dual meaning of bilingualism as liability and asset in Asian American and Latino literature. In literary representations, bilingual personhood illustrates a regime of flexible inclusion where an economic calculus of value for racialized subjects crystallizes at the intersections of language and racial difference and is used in deliberations of social worthiness. By pointing to the nexus of race, capital, and language as the focal point of negotiations of difference and inclusion, Bilingual Brokers probes liberalism’s fault lines for racialized subjects.
