A trilingual juxtaposition: a poststructuralist approach to exploring language and identity in the Chakma community of Bangladesh

Abstract

In this dissertation, I have adopted a poststructuralist approach to explore language and identity among the young members of the Chakma community, an ethnic minority community in Bangladesh, who have exposure to higher education, and hence are at the forefront of the processes of nationalization and globalization. The main objective of the study is to understand the ways Chakma, Bangla and English are perceived in isolation and in relation to one another, and how the multilingual contexts shape the positioning of their identities in a variety of social domains under the force of assimilation through nationalization and globalization. The study has required conducting in-depth interviews of 5 participants with the data thematically analyzed and discussed under the Poststructuralist theoretical framework encompassing Giles and Johnson’s (1987) Ethnolinguistic theory, Bhabha’s (1990; 1994) notions of cultural hybridity and ambivalence as well the agendas of nationalization in constructing a ‘national’ identity, Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas’ (1996) ideas of linguistic imperialism, linguicide and linguicism. The research has outlined the fluid nature of identity shaped by language, and the socio-cultural entanglements associated with language, and the way identity is constantly under construction and deconstruction as people navigate through different facets of their identities in varying contexts.