Authors:

Jeel Rajeshkumar Joshi, Asif Mahamadbhai Vahora

Abstract:

Modern fiction writing often employs language as a tool to challenge authority, using subversive linguistic strategies to critique power structures and resist oppression. This study explores how authors manipulate narrative techniques, coded language, satire, and alternative syntactic structures to defy dominant ideologies and censorship. The research question focuses on how language in modern fiction functions as a means of subversion, with the thesis asserting that writers use experimental syntax, neologisms, unreliable narration, and metafiction to disrupt authoritative discourse. A literature review examines critical perspectives from postmodernism, postcolonialism, and feminist theory, highlighting the role of language in resistance. Case studies include George Orwell’s 1984, where Newspeak illustrates linguistic control; Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which reclaims silenced voices; Toni Morrison’s narratives that challenge racial authority; and Salman Rushdie’s magical realism as a form of colonial defiance. The discussion explores the risks authors face, such as censorship and exile, while emphasizing how language remains a powerful form of ideological contestation. In conclusion, this research underscores the enduring role of linguistic defiance in modern fiction, demonstrating how literature serves as a space for resistance against authoritative power structures. 

Keywords:

linguistic defiance, fiction, power structures, censorship, resistance, satire, narrative techniques, modern literature, subversion.

Vol & Issue:

VOL.16, ISSUE No.4, December 2024