International Journal of Philology

Language as a means of survival and disintegration of identity in works of migration themes

Illia Shniukov
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Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify the features of the functioning of language as a marker of identity and a means of hybridisation in the literature representing the experience of migration. In the course of the research, methods of qualitative content analysis of literary texts with a focus on the language strategies of characters and discursive analysis were used, which allowed for identifying narrative mechanisms of identity formation. The study was conducted in an interdisciplinary paradigm that combines the approaches of cultural philosophy, semiotics, and postcolonial criticism. The analysis was based on digital text processing and manual semantic encoding of key fragments related to the topics of exile, language conflict, hybridity, and self- presentation. As a result, it was determined that linguistic hybridity in a literary text is not only a means of expressing transcultural experience but also a tool of resistance to assimilation. Ukrainian texts are dominated by the theme of loss of linguistic integrity and internalised identity crisis in the context of a sociolinguistic gap. Language is represented as a space of internal conflict between memory and adaptation, in which personal disintegration unfolded. Instead, the Latin American context demonstrated language strategy as a form of political gesture: colonial layering on the hero’s linguistic body generated narratives of translation, splitting, and release through multilingualism or inversion of linguistic hierarchies. Comparative analysis allowed for identifying models according to which language in the literature of migration experience performs a dual function – as a traumatic consequence of expulsion and as a means of symbolic resistance and preservation of subjectivity. The practical importance of the study is the possibility of applying its conclusions to the humanitarian interpretation of migration culture, the formation of cultural memory policy, and the development of educational approaches to the topic of identity in a globalised world

Keywords

discourse of exile; semiosphere; linguistic and cultural instability; hybrid subjectivity; diaspora; communication; resistance

Suggested citation
Shniukov, I. (2025). Language as a means of survival and disintegration of identity in works of migration themes. International Journal of Philology, 16(2), 9-27. https://doi.org/10.31548/philolog/2.2025.09
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