Voices of Resistance: Linguistic Suppression, Identity, and Agency in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels

Abstract

In this article, the intricate nexus of language, power and identity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow
Sun and Americanah is interrogated. It applies a theoretical framework of critical linguistics to these phenomena as well as exploring such
mechanisms of linguistic repression as silence, code-switching and translational pressure, and how they reflect wider socio-political and
patriarchal structures both in Nigerian and diasporic settings. With reference to postcolonial language theories, and feminist literary criticism,
the article argues that Adichie’s practice of multilingualism and in-group language use serves as the affirmation of cultural identity, as well as
the subversion of colonial and patriarchal oppression. The article further highlights linguistic strategies as zones of both individual domination
and collective reassertion, arguing that language is an ideologically-riven battlefield where voices are silenced, re-articulated, and re-valorised.
In the final analysis, my close reading here is instructive of Adichie’s complex depiction of relationships to language as a dynamic resource for
identity negotiation, cultural remembering, and contestation of the hegemonic power.