Wednesday, July 1, 2015

"Survivance" - Yes Survivance is the Title - The Two Become One



SURVIVANCE
When a language dies, a possible world dies with it. There is no survival of the fittest. Even where it is spoken by a handful, by the harried remnants of destroyed communities, a language contains with itself the boundless potential of discovery, or re-compositions of reality, of articulated dreams, which are known to us as myths, as poetry, as metaphysical conjecture and the discourse of law.
                                                                                                             George Steiner, After Babel 

The theories of survivance are elusive, obscure, and imprecise by definition, translation, comparison, and catchword. The nature of survivance is unmistakable in native stories, natural reason, remembrance, traditions and customs and is clearly observable in narrative resistance and personal attributes, such as the native humanistic tease, vital irony, spirit, cast of mind, and moral courage. The character of survivance creates a sense of native presence over absence, and victimry.

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