The Politics of Non-Translation: Novel Opacity as Resistance in Postcolonial and Diasporic Fiction

Abstract

Language in postcolonial literature does more than just get a message across. It carries weight—struggle, memory, resistance. In this study, I look at how untranslated words, code-switching, and a mix of languages aren’t just stylistic choices in three novels: Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, and Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. They're political moves, and they're done on purpose.

I’m drawing on ideas from Édouard Glissant, who talks about the right to opacity, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s push for decolonizing language, and Gayatri Spivak’s work on translation and who gets to speak for whom. These writers push back against the idea that everything has to be clear or easily translated, especially into English. They make language complicated on purpose—it’s both an ethical stand and a storytelling tool. By doing this, they take back control over meaning and knowledge, breaking away from the grip of English and Western ways of reading. My analysis shows that this kind of linguistic resistance isn’t just about words. It’s about power.