Racist Contextualization of the N-Word in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Rizwan Aftab, Asim Aqeel and Mumtaz Ahmad
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Rizwan Aftab: Lecturer, Department of English, International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan.
Asim Aqeel: Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities & Linguistics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
Mumtaz Ahmad: Assistant Professor-Principal, Department of English, Governament Guru Nanak Postgraduate College, Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan.

Global Regional Review, 2020, vol. 5, issue 1, 594-603

Abstract: With Roger Fowler's theory of 'linguistic construction', this study specifically analyses the use of the N-word (nigger) within Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, its contextual use and the function it plays within the context and sequence of events in the delimited fiction. The N-word, which is considered highly sensitive in American society, especially in the context of African Americans, is analyzed within the immediate context of event and situation in which characters are engaged, depending on who is talking to whom, when and where, and with what purpose in mind. The entire communicative event of the N-word is also placed within the global context to fully situate the event and locate the function of the N-word within and outside the literary text and its use and interpretation in global contexts. This contextual study of Their Eyes Was Watching God argues how the highly sensitive racist words are euphemized through N-word. For this purpose, this study employs linguistic analysis by focusing on delimited text form, meaning, and use within the local and global contexts.

Keywords: African American Fiction; Contextualization; Language; Linguistics; N-Word (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aaw:grrjrn:v:5:y:2020:i:1:p:594-603

DOI: 10.31703/grr.2020(V-I).62

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