Possibilidades de deslocamento e subversão de discursos hegemônicos na/pela língua inglesa

Abstract

The present paper investigates some of the ways through which the English Language, historically instrumentalized for colonial purposes of control and domination, might constitute a means of resistance and affirmation of marginalized voices. It attempted to examine the relationship between English and coloniality in order to reflect on the contingencies and possibilities that emerge from that relationship. Thus, this monography aims to explore how language coloniality operates in terms of the (de)legitimization of discursive practices and identities, as well as to identify some of the potential elements and circumstances that enable speakers to take a counter-hegemonic stance of affirmation of their subjectivities by means of reexistence literacies (Souza, 20160) and translinguistic practices (García; Wei, 2014). Therefore, the following sections in this paper address, respectively, the implications of the global spread of English; the relationship between language and coloniality regarding how the colonial matrix produces, updates and reinforces hierarchical classifications of subjects and their discursive practices; the complex and multiple constitution of speakers of English as an additional language’s identities; and, lastly, the possibilities of resistance to hegemonic discourses that might be constructed in conformity with the recognition of speakers’ heterogeneous subjectivities and the different social uses of the English Language. The methodology herein corresponds to a bibliographical review, that is, based on works that have already been published (Butler, 2023; Hashiguti, 2017; hooks, 2017; García; Wei, 2014; Menezes de Souza, 2019; Pennycook, 2021; Souza, 2016; Veronelli, 2021), parallels and connections were articulated between the theorization of different researchers in order to put forward some reflections that might eventually bring about shifts and offer contributions to the English Language teaching-learning area. It was then concluded that the English Language is, potentially, a means for the affirmation of marginalized voices, as long as a place from where to speak is built; a place that, recognized in its constitutive multiplicity, consists in a means for the legitimization of linguistic knowledge, personal experiences e subjectivities often subordinated by the colonial interpretive frame.