M. NourbeSe Philip’s She Tries her Tongue, her Silence Softly Breaks and the Possibilities of Language

Abstract

She tries her tongue, her silence softly breaks (1989), M. NourbeSe Philip’s widely acclaimed poetry collection, explores the themes of identity, diaspora, colonialism and exile and how these are intimately related to language. Through the analysis of selected poems, this essay aims to explore the crucial role played by language in the lyrical subject’s struggle to come to terms with her identity as a Black immigrant woman, her sense of belonging, and with her own use of the English language. This analysis and interpretation draws on key concepts such as nation language (Brathwaite), in betweenness (Bhabha), the violence of language and the remainder (Lecercle). I argue that Philip subverts Western literary forms as a way of denouncing and resisting the violence perpetrated by the English language against the peoples of the African diaspora. In her poems, this is achieved mainly through the fragmentation of words and the collage of scientific and legal texts, as well as through a permanent questioning of the power of the English language. This act of resistance is, for the poet, the only way to tell her story and to open the space for other stories to be shared and other voices to be heard.