Galarrita, Mariam. "Language and race in The Man in the Moone." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/language-and-race-in-the-man-in-the-moone. [Date accessed].
Language and race in The Man in the Moone
Alien language as orientalist allegory
In the 17th century, English intellectuals saw their home country as lagging behind other European powers. It was amid this anxiety that the idea of the need for a universal language swept the nation. Through the accounts of Jesuit missionaries to China, English theorists knew the Chinese used a writing system that could be understood across many countries and cultures. This writing system, the Chinese language, was imagined to be the lingua humana, the language of Adam. In The Man in the Moone, Godwin undermines the advancement of Chinese language and culture by making the lunarian language an allegory for Mandarin. This allegory combines the racial with the linguistic, reinforcing the alienation and orientalization of Asia.
Godwin's The Man in the Moone can be taught in conversation with modern science fiction and speculative fiction texts that explore the yellow peril and anti-Asian racism. Galarrita suggests pairing texts such as Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Edward Said's Orientalism alongside Godwin to present students a new understanding of the relationship between language and race.
Further learning
Recommended
Biopolitics and citizenship in Euripides’ Ion
Who is and who is not a citizen, and how this is determined across national and racial lines, has a deeply rooted history. Dan-el Padilla Peralta takes on questions of citizenship, belonging, and national identity in ancient Mediterranean literature.
