Tuesday, February 10, 2004

blog alert... http://mylifebylynhejinian.blogspot.com/


padcha, keep pushing on english issues b/c i think they have impact on all our writing in u.s. or is thing we all have to think about. what does it mean to be writing in english when english is so invasive right now. poetry is not as big an import as hollywood, but all of u.s. culture is still part of u.s. culture machine.

i do critical work on this english issue some. i'm trying to think about work that writes against this growth of english (b/c also large tradition in u.s. of bilingual writing) so here are some citations on basic introductory works...

there is a lot of discussion about global spread of english. a good, simple introduction is david crystal's global english. see also:
Phillipson, Robert. Linguistic Imperialism. New York: Oxford U P, 1992.
Pennycook, Alastair. The Cultural Politics of English As an International Language. New York: Addison-Wesley P, 1995.

lots of discussion of english in african literature context. big fight between ngugi wa thiongo who stopped writing in english and writes only in kikuyu some years ago. achebe takes other side.

here are classic citations:
Achebe, Chinua. “The African Writer and the English Language.” Morning Yet on Creation Day. London: Heinemann, 1975. 55-62.
Ngūgī wa Thiong’o. Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1986.
Rushdie, Salman. “’Commonwealth Literature’ Does Not Exist.” Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism: 1981-1991. New York: Viking Penguin, 1991. 61-70
Wali, Obiajunwa. “The Dead End of African Literature?” Transition 4 (1963): 14.

this book is good on english at the expense of other languages:
Nettle, Daniel and Suzanne Romaine. Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World’s Languages. New York: Oxford U P, 2000.

i have most of this in photocopy and/or book if you want to read.

i like dan's formulation of workshop as one way you learn how to read.

on meg's questions: i like these questions b/c i think if you don't ask them then you get bad anthropology. the questions have to be somewhat in the work. what might you have to say that might be useful about the mission? what sorts of political movements would you have to align your work with to have it be ethical? or would you? is there a difference between tony hillerman and muriel rukeyser? what would it be?