Abstract

The diglossic role of Spanish and Towa in House Made of Dawn is explored as a possible expression of factionalism at Jemez Pueblo. The interruption of the narrative voice by Spanish utterances is interpreted as an implication of social distancing and as strengthening the novel's theme of estrangement. The strategic lexical code-switches to Towa, which occur within these stretches of Spanish speech, are examined for their semantic motivations and for their potential as devices for achieving textual disjunction