A Life Lived

    Quickened pulses, raised voices, shouts of dissent and nods of agreement are the reactions that conversations on masculinity are usually met with. Suffice to say, masculinity is a hotly debated topic. The Oxford Dictionary defines masculinity as , “ a set of qualities, characteristics or roles generally considered typical of, or appropriate to, a man ” (796). Masculinity, whether we agree or not, has always been present in Caribbean discourse. Men and women alike have ,unintentionally or otherwise, given their own definition of masculinity by their words. Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance and Samuel Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners imply that masculinity in the Caribbean can be characterized by one’s reaction to women, one’s ability to get a woman and men as providers.   Earl Lovelace implies that masculinity is hinged on a man’s reaction to a woman as well as his ability to acquire a woman in the first place. In the first instance, Lovelace presents, in The Dragon Can’

“'Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war!” warned world-renowned reggae singer Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley. Previously, I never thought that this lyric could be applied to my treatment of students’ language. However, after my experience at UTT, I have come to appreciate many things. Namely, that language is a part of being human and my students’ languages are them just as much as their skin and hair. Students’ languages are part of their identity. Unfortunately, in Trinidad and Tobago, we have the misconception that Standard English is our mother tongue and the Trinidad Creole is a deterioration of that language. The misconception is also that the Trinidad Creole should never be used in the classroom. I have come to learn that the Trinidad Creole is a language on its own. Although many of the words are English words, the Trinidad Creole has its own elements

Linguistics complements the study of Literature. One site even went on to illustrate that if “Literature is like a drink. Linguistics is like analyzing its ingredients, where they are mined and possibly the politics of mining” (Quora). One might add that Linguistics is also the study of the ingredients and how they get together to perform the functions that they do i.e. to hold the entire drink together among other functions . Discourse Analysis is a branch of Linguistics. The University of Sheffield states, “Discourse can be defined as language beyond the level of a sentence, language behaviours linked to social practices and language as a system of thought. Discourse Analysis (DA) is a modern discipline of the social sciences that covers a wide variety of different socio - linguistic approaches” (University of Sheffield).Literary Linguistics is an integral part to Discourse Analysis . It is the study of literature from a linguistic perspective. Literary Linguistics is the