Language and Empire: Postcolonial “english” and Unamuno’s “archi-Castilian”

Abstract

For Miguel de Unamuno, language is the central fact of the human experience in the world. German Völkerpsychologie, or “folk psychology,” and poetic organicism influence his understanding of language and are key to what Unamuno called “archi-Castilian,” or sobrecastellano, a concept that coincides to a great extent with postcolonial criticism’s conception of language. “Archi-Castilian,” like postcolonial “english,” are alternatives to Castilian (the conservative version sponsored by the Royal Academy of the language) and “English” (the official language of the British Empire). Thus, “archi-Castilian” and “english” are not standard codes of an erstwhile imperial center, but linguistic codes transformed and subverted by the uses of speakers in different parts of the world. For Unamuno, “archi-Castilian” becomes a linguistic model that decenters the Castilian language, making it a completely transatlantic affair.