Intertextual Symbolism, Gullah and Language Conflict in Daughters of the Dust

Abstract

The paper focuses on the analysis of the African-American film Daughters of the Dust. Due to the film’s geographical setting, narrative techniques, feminist perspective and immersion in the postcolonial context, it is possible to analyze it in the context of intertextuality and in correlation with other important films and novels. The technique of juxtaposing the past and the present is emphasized as means of depicting the importance of communal memories. From a linguistic point of view, the film Daughters of the Dust represents an ideal site for investigating the characteristics of Gullah Creole as a product of contact between English and West African languages. Such linguistic contact represents a part of a broader cultural contatact within which it is possible to identify language conflict and language ideology, notions which emerge in the analysis of efforts to maintain the cultural and linguistic identity of Gullah speakers.