PĂSĂRI CĂLĂTOARE: LIMBAJ ȘI IDENTITATE ÎN CUM FETELE GARCIA ȘI-AU PIERDUT ACCENTUL DE JULIA ALVAREZ
BIRDS OF PASSAGE: LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN JULIA ALVAREZ’S HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS

Summary/Abstract: The current paper tackles the immigrant narrative of displacement through a linguistic lens, focusing on Julia Alvarez’ Bildungsroman, How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and focusing on the character of Yolanda as an example of a new diasporic identity, fractured and reformed by linguistic variety. The paper illustrates the pitfalls of cultural assimilation, as the young woman attempts to write herself into the dominant language of the imperial power (English), while wrestling with the traumatic aspects of her forgotten mother tongue (Spanish). A special emphasis is placed on the duality of Dominican identity within an Anglo-Saxon space and on the fluidity of migratory and diasporic communities that, as Homi Bhabha asserts, can never return to a point of origin, or to any “initial subjectivities”.

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