Identity Construction through Language: A Critical Discourse Analysis of We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

The centrality of language in the constructions and bargains of identity has been central to the postcolonial conditions, wherein language expression as a practice of culture signals the hybridity of culture and power politics. The novel We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (2013) examines the way of how migration and globalization has transformed the identity of Zimbabwe by means of the language and discourse. This study explores the discursive and linguistic means by which Bulawayo builds the identity and how language can reveal the conflicts between Western and Zimbabwean cultural identities. Taking a qualitative mode of analysis, the study uses the model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) developed by Fairclough (1995) on the chosen pieces of text. The postcolonial theory is incorporated into the analysis to examine the intersection of the language, power and identity. Results indicate that the application of code-switching, naming, metaphor, and fragmentation of narration by Bulawayo could be regarded as a way of countering the ideological and identity negotiation in the context of postcolonial and diasporic context. The study concludes with the fact that the linguistic hybridity of Bulawayo establishes a different meaning of identity as an ever-changing and shifting dynamic phenomenon and turns language into the place of empowerment and cultural self-representation.