Creating a ‘Truer’ Language Within a Work of Fiction: The Example of Suzette Haden Elgin’s Native Tongue
Schemes for creating imaginary, ideal languages were particularly prevalent in 17th and 18th century Europe and generally arose out of a desire to simplify language and impose order so as to minimise ambiguity and thereby improve communication and understanding between peoples. Centuries later, in h...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2012-03-01
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| Series: | E-REA |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/2410 |
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| Summary: | Schemes for creating imaginary, ideal languages were particularly prevalent in 17th and 18th century Europe and generally arose out of a desire to simplify language and impose order so as to minimise ambiguity and thereby improve communication and understanding between peoples. Centuries later, in her feminist science-fiction novel, Native Tongue (1984), Suzette Haden Elgin embarks upon a rather different project, aimed at providing women with a language capable of expressing their specific experience of life and the world. This study aims to assess the position which Elgin’s imaginary, ideal language – Láadan – occupies between the realms of reality and fiction, truth and lies. |
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| ISSN: | 1638-1718 |