Inside Out: The Dialogics Of Codeswitching In Ana Castillo's So Far From God And Ibis Gómez-vega's Send My Roots Rain

Abstract

In the process of narration, codeswitching, the use of words from one or more language by the same speaker within the same speech situation, reflects certain resistant strategies within the written text, forging a bridge to introduce alternative or alien viewpoints. Because languages develop, change, and often merge over time, reflecting societal and political shifts, the practice of codeswitching in the novel opens new spaces for interpretation, expanding the dialogic interaction within the text. Inside Out takes Bakhtin's concepts of heteroglossia and dialogism with its centrifugal and centripetal influences, and examines Ana Castillo's novel <italic>So Far From God</italic> and Ibis Gómez-Vega's novel <italic>Send My Roots Rain</italic> advancing the theory that literature appropriates language by those intent on rebelling against stultifying monological stances. These authors' linguistic choices allow their characters to exercise codeswitching voices, overcoming overweening masculine authority. Moving beyond patrilineal arguments of male identity development, they portray a women centered journey of self-discovery. Additionally, the characters re-formulate the political in the private and public spaces of their reality. These two aspects of personhood reflect and refract off one another, allowing for rich, rippling texts that explore lives caught between two cultures, reflecting Bakhtin's emphasis of the de-centered use of language.