A stylistic analysis of Suhair Hammad’s What i will

Sura M.N.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18454/RULB.2019.19.3.5

СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ СТИХОТВОРЕНИЯ «ЧТО Я БУДУ» СУХЕЙРЫ ХАММАД

Научная статья

Сура М.Н. *

Багдадский университет, Колледж для женщин, Багдад, Ирак * Корреспондирующий автор (sura.muttlak[at]coeduw.uobaghdad.edu.iq)

Аннотация

В настоящее время лингвистика является отдельной дисциплиной; ее использование в изучении литературы положило начало новому восприятию в области литературоведения. В этом исследовании представлен стилистический анализ стихотворения Сухейры Хаммад «Что я буду» с точки зрения его лексических, морфологических и фонологических паттернов. Следует отметить, что стилистика не только полезна для студентов, изучающих языкознание, литературу и культуру, но и для преподавателей английского языка и литературы. Тем не менее, стилистика рассматривается как мост между лингвистикой и литературой; она занимается изучением инструментов языка, таких как риторические фигуры и синтаксические паттерны, которые связаны с созданием выразительного или литературного стиля. Таким образом, стилистика - это область, которая связывает литературную критику с одной стороны, и лингвистику с другой.

Ключевые слова: стилистика, девиация, литературная стилистика, общая стилистика.

A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF SUHAIR HAMMAD'S WHAT I WILL

Research article

Sura M.N. *

University of Baghdad, College of Education for Women, Baghdad, Iraq * Corresponding author (sura.muttlak[at]coeduw.uobaghdad.edu.iq)

Abstract

Linguistics is nowadays a separate discipline; its use in the study of literature has started a new perception in the field of literary criticism. This study presents a stylistic analysis of Hammad's poem "What I Will", in terms of its lexical, morphological, and phonological patterns. It is necessary to mention that stylistics is not only helpful to students of linguistics, literary, and cultural criticism, but it is also beneficial for teachers of English language and literature. However, stylistics considers as a bridge between linguistics and literature; it is the study of tools in languages, such as rhetorical figures and syntactical patterns, that are related to creating expressive or literary style. Thus, stylistics is a field that relates both literary criticisms on the one hand and linguistics on the other.

Keywords: stylistics, deviation, literary stylistics, general stylistics.

Introduction

This study attempts to analyze the significant types of linguistic deviation used by Suhair Hammad in her poem What I Will (see Appendix 1) occurs in Zsstar Diva, a collection of poems by the poet published in 2005. When one reads any text, he/she explains its various structural levels grammar, sounds, words and textual structure. In that sense, stylistics is a discipline that studies different styles; it refers to the study of proper use of words or language in suitable places. Mills (2005) asserts that stylistics is the analysis of language and literary texts depending on selected theoretical language models. Yufang- Ho (2011) defines stylistics as "the study of the language and style of literature" [7, P.5]. However, stylistic analysis depends on a linguistic argument in the literary work, and thus makes use of various tools of linguistic analysis, e.g. using theories relating to phonetics, syntax, semantics and/or theories from other areas such as pragmatics, cognitive-linguistics, etc. Norgaard et al. (2010) argue that stylistics is «the study of the ways in which meaning is created through language in literature as well as in other types of texts» [14, P. 1]; it can be said it is a way of creating new words.

Leech [8, P.29] affirms that stylistics is the study of style and of how language use could vary by the varying circumstances such as the circumstances of the period, discourse situation or authorship. He differentiates between general stylistics and literary stylistics. General stylistics deals with the study of style in texts of all kinds, while literary stylistics is restricted to literary texts. He also argues that readers have to recognize, within literary stylistics, the two types of stylistics, namely descriptive stylistics and explanatory stylistics. The former aims to describe the style, while the latter aims to use stylistics to clarify something. Within explanatory stylistics, two fields can be recognized: extrinsic, which is suggested to reveal the author/s or the chronology of a set of writings; and] intrinsic, which is used widely when analyzing literary texts, and it is suggested to clarify the meaning or importance of the text itself. Figure (1) below shows the many types of stylistics.

Figure 1 - Types of Stylistics (the figure is set by the researcher)

Aims

This study aims at detecting the devices and techniques Hammad uses at the grammatical, morphological, phonological and graphological levels. It is showing Hammad's effective use of deviation to express specific and unique ideas in her poetry. It also aims to determine the types of deviationthat were employed.

Limitation of the study

This study is limited to the analysis and description of the notion of deviation. To be more specific, the analysis will be concerned with the various types of linguistic deviation and how and why these deviations are used by Suhair Hammad.

Problem

The problem of this study lies in the following questions:

What types of deviation occur in the poem under analysis? Are they internal or external? At what linguistic level do they occur? How do deviant features work individually and together to influence the reader's understanding of poetry? Does deviation as a literary device make the language of poetry strange, odd, obscure and linguistically incoherent?

Previous Studies

Deviation as a Linguistic Device

One of the interests of stylisticians is the analysis of deviations from the norm which may be conducted in any literary work. McMenamin (2002) argues that deviation deals with options that lead to the production of 'ungrammatical' or 'incorrect', 'unacceptable' forms. Linguistically, any given 'norm' can be either prescriptive or descriptive. A descriptive norm shows the speakers' and writers' recognition of what is suitable or grammatical in language form and function, while a prescriptive norm shows a social sense of what in language use is right and appropriate.

Leech [8, P.55] proposes that deviation is the violation and breaking of the rules and constructions of the language code itself, breaking the norm. Accordingly, a norm can be divided into an absolute norm and a relative norm. The absolute norm is "a norm for the language as a whole" [8, P.56], whereas the relative norm is "a norm provided by some set of texts which ... are regarded as comparable".

Furthermore, deviation can be classified into determinate deviation and statistical deviation. The determinate deviation is non-quantitative; in this point, the norm (which is the language itself) can be treated as a system composed of rules. Therefore, deviation is regarded as a contradiction between what is permitted by the language system and what appears in the texts, in a way that determinate deviation shows the breaking and violation of the rules and constructions of the language code itself. Determinate deviation plays an essential role in stylistic analysis. By contrast, statistical deviation deals with the quantitative amount of linguistic distinction between the domain and the norm. In general, the norm of this type can be treated as a relative norm, as it is not easy to produce an absolute statistical norm for the language as a whole. So, the deviation is a feature used by the poet while trying to break the "expected norms" of linguistic expression. It can be said that the poet tries to exercise "poetic license". Leech talks about the various types of deviation from the norm: primary deviation, secondary deviation and tertiary deviation. Primary deviation deals with how the poet violates the norm of the language as a whole; it occurs within two domains:

- where the language gives options, the poet can go outside what is normal;

- where the language gives the option, "the poet denies himself the freedom to choose, using the same item in successive positions" [8, P.59].

Secondary deviation is "deviation not from norms of linguistic expression in general, but the norms of literary composition, of the 'poetic canon', including norms of author or genre" [8, P.62]. This kind of deviation is called conventional variation or defeated expectancy. An example of this deviation is metrical variation, i.e., a violation from the metric set. Enjambment or run-on lines', which means «a lack of fit between metrical and syntactic units, such that a line's end occurs at a point where there is no major grammatical boundary» [8, P.62].

Tertiary deviation is "deviation from norms internal to a text" [8, P.63]; this is also called internal deviation. This kind of deviation is similar to secondary deviation, but it differs from the other two levels of deviation. Leech and Short affirm that properties of language within a text could be departed from the norms of the text itself. To be more specific, "they stand

against the background of what the text has led us to expect" [9, P.44]. It is a type expected to be defeated, i.e., a dissatisfaction of assumptions which have occurred in the poem. It can occur as a dynamic phenomenon and is specified by its distinction with the former context. Besides, what is considered an internal deviation at one spot in the text will not be so at a different place. Internal deviation «often signals a point of climax» [8, P.63].

Hence, some of these types of deviation (such as phonological, morphological, lexical, and graphological levels) will be the model employed in this paper for analyzing the selected poem "What I Will" by Suhair Hammad.

Levels of Stylistic Analysis

The levels of stylistic analysis can be summarised as follows:

- Graphological level: It refers to the parallel study of the language's writing system, including the rules of spelling. Graphological levels are concerned with the use of capitalization, punctuation and spacing, e.g., full stop, colon, comma, etc.

- Phonological level: It is the level of sounds. The phonological system contains two domains: (a) a set of sounds and its features, (b) patterns which show how sounds are related to each other. Phonological devices include alliteration, assonance, consonance, and rhyme elements.

- Morphological level: This level shows how the words can be constructed. It is concerned with the construction of words by adding prefixes and suffixes to their roots.

According to Aronoff and Fudeman (2011), morphology shows the mental system which is engaged in word information processes; it may refer to the field of linguistics which deals with words, their internal construction and how they are shaped.

- Lexical-Syntactical level: Lexis deals with the vocabulary, while syntax deals with sentence structure, with how words are related to each other to form sentences. Tallerman (2011) asserts that lexical-syntactical choices can be performed by devices such as collocates, particular parts of speech, similes, and metaphors.

Elements in stylistic analysis

Elements in stylistic analysis can be shown as follows:

Graphological level contains:

- Paragraphing: refers to a group of sentences, supporting a given topic or idea. Hence, all these sentences must be connected.

- Punctuation: includes symbols and marks which are used in writing. There are different types of punctuation marks used to help students and readers to understand the meaning of texts. These comprise the use of full stops, commas, hyphens, question marks, exclamation marks, inverted commas, apostrophes, colons, semicolons, and brackets.

Phonological level

Norgaard et al., (2010) state that phonological level contains

- Alliteration: A stylistic device based on the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of the words. For example: Beawulfs "From a friendless foundling, feeble and wretched".

- Assonance: A stylistic device based on the repetition of the same vowel sound in two or more words in a line of poetry, e.g. cool blue shoes.

- Consonance: A stylistic device based on the repetition of the consonant sound. To be more exact, it refers to those sounds in words whose consonants of the stressed syllables agree, but whose vowels differ; examples include She ran home to her parents; canonized/eternalized; dozed/dazed; dissolute/resolute.

- Rhyme: A stylistic device used in poetry to refer to "the repetition of the last stressed vowel and the following speech sounds in two or more words, most typically positioned at the end of the verse- lines" [14, P.145]. It can be safely said that rhyme isconnected to alliteration, assonance, and consonance.

Morphological level contains:

- Affixation: The process of adding an affix -either a prefix or a suffix- to the root. Prefixation is the initial addition to form different meaning, e.g. happy/unhappy; suffixation is the final addition that may change, the part of speech of the lexeme to which the suffix is added, e.g. read/reader; friend/friendship.

- Coinage: The creation of a new word from an existing one, e.g. cred from credibility; ovate from ovation.

Lexico-Syntax level contains:

- Anastrophe: It refers to the inversion of the usual, normal or logical order of the elements in a sentence.

- Anaphora: According to Gardelle (2012) anaphorais a connection between two parts of the sentence in which one part leads to the discussion of the other(s)

- Ellipsis: It refers to a situation "where the usual form/meaning mappings, the algorithms, structures, rules, and constraints that in nonelliptical sentences allow us to map sounds and gestures onto their corresponding meanings, break down" [11, P. 1].

Biography of Suhair Hammad

Before embarking on our analysis of the poem, it is necessary to give a brief account of the poet Suhair Hammad. Hammad was born in 1973 Amman, Jordan. She is a Palestinian-American poet, author, performer, and politician. The poet is aware that she uses a unique style, which is connected to hip-hop. [6]. Hammad always regards poetry as a part of her life. The poet is known for her lucid, powerful political poetry. Thus, most of her poems are about fighting and struggling. She moved to New York where she grew up; subsequently, her poetry is affected by her life there, and by the Muslim culture as well. Hashem and Asqalan [13, P.41] argue that Hammad's identity can be fluctuated among the cultures, and this is a result in her dual consciousness.

The Theme of "What I Will"

This poem tackles the mass murder that happens in Palestine and reflects the truth about many people being completely out of touch with the realities of the situation. It also refers to the world's complete indifference towards this massacre. The poetic voice expresses that will neither feel sorry for those who committed suicide nor kill other people because of Palestinians death. It also handles the Israeli occupation and how the Israeli soldiers have killed so many people; still the Palestinians

remain powerful and united. The theme of this poem is fearlessness. Ball [4, P.150] mentioned that What I Will considered as an idiom or expression of objection to the United States' many types of imperialist interference in the Middle East.

Analysis and Results

The rhyme scheme of this poem is AABCDBCEFFFFGBHAABBG CDII. This makes it easy to notice the breaking of the rhyming scheme of the poem. Hammad breaks the rhyming scheme in order to get the readers' attraction, this scheme able to creat unusual balance images within the readers mind. It can be said that she uses two words at the end of sentences.

The poet uses so much imagery in her poem in order to make the reader imagine what happens and what will happen. Hammad is doing this to make the reader get her message by using idiomatic expressions. Ball [11, P. 151] preposes that Hammad participated in "playful linguistic dances around the motif of the 'war drum'", which is expressed metaphor; with another metaphors such as line fifteen 'drummed up war' referring to 'war. The poet starts the first lines of the poem "I will not dance to your war drum...", assuming that the poetic voice will not take part in a conflict ("war"). However, she uses personification while referring to the "war drum" by giving a human sense to war to create a connection with her readers. The repetition of the line "I will not dance to your war drum" reflects the strength of that meaning.

The poet deliberately and effectively repeats "I will (not)" thirteen times in order to secure emphasis. This repetition also adds force and clarity and is used as a unifying device. She uses negative form to show that the activity ,that is not be happened, is refered to the will of the poet who 'will not dance, will not lend, etc. The tone of the poem can be considered as a flowing beat, as well as a clear melody.

Stylistic Analysis at the Phonological Level

Alliteration occurs in many places of the poem:

Besides, at the phonological level, it is clear that there are some examples of rhyme, end rhyme, and internal rhyme: "drum- drum, you- you, from- drum, dancing- drumming, death- breath, come- from".

Stylistic Analysis at the Morphological Level

1- Many of the words used in this poem are connected to war or rather give the impression that there is a war or conflict. For example: 'drummed up war, dead, murder, suicide, bombs, .'

2- Thus, they capture the world of war, its tool, the struggle, and her people's suffering. These can be regarded as words of a set together with their related words or collocates. For example: war, beat, lifeless, hate, kill, die, murder, pop, mourn, the dead, suicide, bombs, resist, death.

All of these are words of a set, that means all words that sued in this poem are occurred in war's language, they are connected to the war or to give a sense that there is a wor or conflect. These can be treated as words of a set with their associated words or collocated words . They show or create an atmosphere of war, asserting how people suffer from that war. The use of many "I will" in the poem cannot go unnoticed. This expression (pronoun I and modal will) shows that she and the Palestinians will never be a part of the war. This reflects the degree of optional commitment the poet has towards the activity she selects to take [1].

Stylistic Analysis at the Lexical Level:

- There is no much use of lexical devices.

- There is an instance of lexical deviation in line 41: "heartbeat" is a compound word consisting of noun + noun.

Stylistic Analysis at the Graphological Level:

- There is no division of stanzas.

- As far as punctuation marks are concerned, she uses only the full stop, but no other punctuation marks, e.g. commas. There is no use of capitalization, including the personal pronoun I (i). Hammad "never captalizes any letter" [2], this makes her poetry unique and uniformed, her words have to flow as one.

- There are graphological deviations. For instance, "soul nor" (in line 4), which in SE would most frequently occur with a comma before the conjunction: "soul, nor".

Figurative Use of Language:

- Hammad uses the imagery to make the reader get the poet's message by using metaphor in line twenty eight the word 'life'. The poet uses metaphor as apowerful instrument to explicit her feelings in effective way.

-The poet uses personification while referring to the war drum; she applies the human sense for war. She does this to make the theme more relevant to the reader, and the idea seems sold; this helps the reader grasp and understand the concept. In exploring a poem, the readers should first of all recognize the voice, to know if it is the poet speaking directly or the poet speaking through somebody else's voice.

I. Not lend my soul nor II. beating. I know that beat III. not dance to your drummed

IV. up war. I will not pop

V. suicide. I will not side VI. collateral or casual

VII. will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved

VIII. will not lend my name IX. persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than X. louder than this breath XI. wrong. Life is a right not XII. it is lifeless. I know XIII. I come from. I

(consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (consonance) (assonance) (assonance)

- Paradox is shown in lines 9-11. It is mentioned that the poetic voice does not know its people's skin. It is assumed that those are its people who are being cruelly murdered and mistreated. She uses paradox to attract the readers' attention and provide emphasis. Alaghbray (2019) confirms that the poet is resisting, she indicates herself in "opposition to aggression and vilence" [1, P.6].

- Repetition (or 'reduplication') is the reiteration of words, phrases, etc., e.g. "I will not dance to your drum". By using repetition, the poet tries to form a kind of rhythm and add force and clarity. She also aims to draw the readers' attention to a particular idea. There are 48 pronouns are reapeted, in this way the poet indicates herself within assuredness and objection to the identity of the other. [1]. The conjunction 'and' is repeated three times in line 40. This is a literary device aimed to make an idea clearer. Hammad uses such a type of repetition as a rhetorical device in order to emphasize the value of words in the entire text, the aim being to make a connection between her and her readership.

- There are so many occurrences of consonances. She uses these devices to restate the importance of an idea or theme and provide or intensify rhythm.

Conclusion

The poem 'What I will' shows the poet's determination to be bitterly apposed to repression and militarism. At the same time, Hammad is ready to commit to promoting freedom, and supporting and encouraging peace. She might demand justice, dignity, and human rights, not only for the Palestinians but for all; she is not only a pacifist, but also an advocate of nonviolence.

From my perspective, the poem proves Hammad to be a creative artist, writing and speaking about issues like racism, freedom, peace, repression, non-vilence, etc. The 'war drums' in the poem are used to stir up emotions. The word 'dance' is used seven times in the poem. This repetition emphasizes the 'dance metaphor' in the poem, which demonstrates how the poet can respond to the complexity of experience. According to the nalysis Hammad used the stylistic devices for aesthetic purposes. The point to be mentioned here is that, in poetry, rules are made to be broken for disorientation and surprise. Hammad is aware of the norms of the language; she intentionally deviates from the norm skillfully in order to show not only her ability to use language but also her excellence in poetry. To be more specific, the language of Hammad's poetry showed to have many striking features of linguistic deviation. The illustrations that the researcher has provided may lead to say that Hammad creates her own language and skillfully manipulates it in her poetry. The poet uses literary devices such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc., to reinforce the meaning of words, to give them emphasis by linking them together, and to get the readers' attention to the meaning of the poem. Hammad's constant figurative use of language helps her to extend the significance of what she is saying and make ideas vivid. This figurative use of language enriches the meaning and weight of her poem.

Appendix

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What I Will

1 - I will not

2 - dance to your war

3 - drum. I will

4 - not lend my soul nor

5 - my bones to your war

6 - drum. I will

7 - not dance to your

8 - beating. I know that beat.

9 - It is lifeless. I know

10 - intimately that skin

11 - you are hitting. It

12 - was alive once

13 - hunted stolen

14 - stretched. I will

15 - not dance to your drummed

16 - up war. I will not pop

17 - spin beak for you. I

18 - will not hate for you or

19 - even hate you. I will

20 - not kill for you. Especially

21 - I will not die

22 - for you. I will not mourn

23 - the dead with murder nor

24 - suicide. I will not side

25 - with you nor dance to bombs

26 - because everyone else is

27 - dancing. Everyone can be

28 - wrong. Life is a right not

29 - collateral or casual. I

30 - will not forget where

31 - I come from. I

32 - will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved

33 - near and our chanting

34 - will be dancing. Our

35 - humming will be drumming. I

36 - will not be played. I

37 - will not lend my name

38 - nor my rhythm to your

39 - beat. I will dance

40 - and resist and dance and

41 - persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than

42 - death. Your war drum ain't

43 - louder than this breath.

Конфликт интересов Conflict of Interest

Не указан. None declared.

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