POLITICS AND TRANSCULTURE ON LANGUAGE & LITERATURE: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECTS (THE FINAL EPISODE)

There are disciplines other than philosophy and theology - ontology and epistemology among them - that have as much affected language and linguistical thought as to cut human experience into two realms of knowledge: primary/secondary, objective/subjective, real/illusionary. And so through these disciplines we have seen the clash and confusion among, and growth and upsurge in, literary concepts and movements through all these many years like idealism and romaticism, expressive thought and radical skepticism, and modernism, postmodernism, and new criticism.

The easy explanation is that we move from one orientation to the other because we want change, and that change, like water and air, is a basic human need. This is how it is in art. We indulge in art to break away from the habit of the real thing, and we welcome a new artistic form to find a new artistic attitude. The difficult part is that language is far more complex than art, and in the light of what Heidegger remarked that language speaks man and all man's thought is implicated in language, change in language and linguistic thought is almost equivalent to a change of life or of identity.

During the middle of this year's regular NBA season, Heat superstar Shaquille O'Neal mentioned that the game of professional basketball is changing. O'Neal is an intimidating presence who can easily change a particular play of a particular game, and so it all the more gave an exigent meaning to his discerning view to players who - for failure to see this and adapt - may end up being stuck in their era and continue to play in John Stockton shorts, Dave Regullano shoes, and the 80's Denver Nuggets' brand of one-dimensionality. That the remark "the game of basketball is changing" (7 footers shooting threes, 6 footers playing posts) already sounds so eerily alarming, imagine how it would be if a real person in real life, a real government in a real milieu, like a Shaquille O'Neal in the court of power politics and culture told you -

Your Language Is Changing.

(to be continued)