Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy: Politics in the Vernaculars

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Schrank
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Great Variability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Cultural Assumptions ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Autobiographical Fiction ◽  
Literature And Language

This essay examines the political uses to which Behan puts language in his autobiographical fiction, Borstal Boy, both as an instrument of domination and a means of liberation. Identifying Standard English language and literature as important components of the British imperial project, Behan creates, as a linguistic alternative, ‘englishes’, a composite language in which differences of geography, class, age, education, and occupation create a demotic speech of great variability and expressive force. In so doing, Behan sabotages the cultural assumptions and justifications for colonial exploitation embedded and validated in Standard English literature and language.

Borrowing As A Tool To Fill The Ideological Thoughts: The Role Of Code-Mixing In An American Brat By Bapsi Sidhwa And The Escape By Qaisra Shiraz

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (II) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Native People ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Bapsi Sidhwa ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Language And Literature

This research article highlights the temperament, inference, scope, and motives of code-mixing in Pakistani English works. One novel from Pakistani English novels namely, An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa, and one short story namely, The Escape by Qaisra Shehraz are being selected as an illustration of this reading. In this novel and short story, the writers have already dealt with the characteristics of postcolonialism. English language and literature pierced into the privileged civilizations of the sub-continent, after the end of British Imperialism. Pakistani writers in English are the best interpreter of the post-colonial communal language. In this study, I have hit upon code-mixing in English works written by Pakistani authors to a bigger echelon. These works are paragons of arts and the unbelievable mixture of rhetorical and fictitious study. In these works, the writers have not abased the confined diversities. They have tinted the value of Pakistani English in order to achieve the chatty desires of native people. These borrowings from the native languages are used to fill the lexical fissures of ideological thoughts. The reason of these borrowings is not to represent the English as a substandard assortment. Through the utilization of native words, we conclude that the significance of native languages has been tinted to question mark the dialect as well. The words of daily use also have an area of research for English people without having any substitute in English. That’s why in English literature innovative practices and ideas of code-mixing have been employed.

Borrowing As A Tool To Fill The Ideological Thoughts: The Role Of Code-Mixing In An American Brat By Bapsi Sidhwa And The Escape By Qaisra Shiraz

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Native People ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Bapsi Sidhwa ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Language And Literature

This research article highlights the temperament, inference, scope, and motives of code-mixing in Pakistani English works. One novel from Pakistani English novels namely, An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa, and one short story namely, The Escape by Qaisra Shehraz are being selected as an illustration of this reading. In this novel and short story, the writers have already dealt with the characteristics of postcolonialism. English language and literature pierced into the privileged civilizations of the sub-continent, after the end of British Imperialism. Pakistani writers in English are the best interpreter of the post-colonial communal language. In this study, I have hit upon code-mixing in English works written by Pakistani authors to a bigger echelon. These works are paragons of arts and the unbelievable mixture of rhetorical and fictitious study. In these works, the writers have not abased the confined diversities. They have tinted the value of Pakistani English in order to achieve the chatty desires of native people. These borrowings from the native languages are used to fill the lexical fissures of ideological thoughts. The reason for these borrowings is not to represent the English as a substandard assortment. Through the utilization of native words, we conclude that the significance of native languages has been tinted to question mark the dialect as well. The words of daily use also have an area of research for English people without having any substitute in English. That’s why in English literature innovative practices and ideas of code-mixing have been employed.

Nepalese English (Nenglish): Diverse and expanded assortment of Standard English

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (01) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Nani Babu Ghimire
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Literal Translation ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Written Form

Nepalese English is a new version of Standard English which is developed due to the effect of the Worlds Englishes. When the English language is expanded, the consequence has been seen in the use of English according to the socio-cultural context of the countries. The use of English either in spoken or written form is also seen differently from the Standard English in Nepal. To uncover this change in the use of English in Nepal, I studied two fictions (novels) written by two Nepalese literary figures in English based on qualitative analysis of the authors’ practice in the use of Nepalese English in writing fiction and found that there is the influence of Nepalese socio-cultural, socio-political, social norms and values in English literature. The finding also illustrated that Nepalese words (characters, location, kinship and taboos terms) are making their entries, complete sentences in Nepali are written, English suffixes are being attached to Nepalese words and vice versa, the word order of English is changed in Nepalese English (Nenglish), the literal translation of Nepalese proverbs are being introduced in English literature. The practice of writing English literature using Nepalese English is being extended to create its own features in English language which leads to develop Nepalese English as a separate variety in the field of language study.

scholarly journals Teaching the Big Three: Making Sense of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-53
Author(s):  
Edward R. Raupp
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Geoffrey Chaucer ◽  
John Milton ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Master's Level ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Language And Literature

Arguably, the three most important early writers in the English language – indeed, one might say the founders of the language – are Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), William Shakespeare (1564-1616), and John Milton (1608-1674).  Yet our experience at the higher level of education is that students have had little exposure to the life and times of these writers or of their work.  Our study shows that, while some Georgian school leavers have been exposed briefly to a bit of Shakespeare, few have chanced to encounter Chaucer and none to Milton.  Moreover, while teaching what we might call “The Big Three” of English language and literature, much the same might be said at the master’s level: a bit of Shakespeare, little of Chaucer, and none of Milton.  To the extent that students of English as a foreign language encounter any literature at all, they tend to be offered little other than literal translation.  “Retell the text.”  They miss the nuances of the English language as they would encounter them through the greatest of writers.  It is, therefore, essential that those who teach any or all of these great writers develop a strategy to fit the needs of the students while meeting the objectives of the course.  The key to making sense of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton is to make connections to what students already know, to their own experiences, to make these greatest of all English writers relevant to the lives of the students in ways they can understand. Keywords: English literature, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton

A Fair Field Needing Folk: Anglo-Norman

PMLA ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 69 (4-Part1) ◽  
pp. 965-978
Author(s):  
Ruth J. Dean
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Western Culture ◽  
Rare Phenomenon ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
External Events ◽  
Considerable Body ◽  
Independent Existence

Anglo-norman literature represents an interesting and fairly rare phenomenon in western culture. For about three centuries an imported vernacular was widely current in England, though in varying degrees. This language, which was basically the Norman dialect of French, took on in England a character of its own, both because of its distance from its home ground and because of the influence of external events. At the same time it produced a considerable body of literature, in part reminiscent of its origin, in part determined by the Latin and English literature of its new home, in part influenced by new importations from France. Then—one might almost say abruptly—although the conquerors were never expelled, the imported language and literature ceased to have independent existence. Yet their influence remained forever in English language and literature, absorbed into the nation as were the conquerors and immigrants themselves.

Prose for inquisitive minds. On Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich, his works and their translation

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-153
Author(s):  
O. G. Sidorova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Russian Translation ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Original Essays ◽  
Thomas Browne ◽  
Literature And Language

The paper deals with Sir Thomas Browne, a doctor of medicine, philosopher, and writer of the English Baroque. His legacy holds an enduring appeal for scholars and, more importantly, survives in English language and its literature. It is demonstrated that Browne’s prose played an important role in the shaping of English literature and language, and that his philosophical and scientific views were eclectic. As a separate topic, the article considers problems of translating his prose into other languages. Translations can be spot-on, as shown in the article, when a coincidence of the ‘time of culture’ (Popovich, Borges) between the original and the culture of the translation occurs. For translations into Russian, a problem arises due to the inconsistency (polyglossia) of the 17th-c. Russian language. The author provides a comparative analysis of Browne’s original essays and their Russian translation. She finds that V. Grigoriev’s translations of Browne’s diptych discourses rely on a complex historical stylization, use 18th-c. Russian language, and have proved themselves as a factor of cross-literary communication.

The political economy of code choice in a “revolutionary society”: Tamil-English bilingualism in Jaffna, Sri Lanka

1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Suresh Canagarajah
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
The Political ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Switching Activity ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Code Choice

ABSTRACTThis article explores the persistence of Tamil-English bilingualism in the Marxist/Nationalist de-facto separate state of Jaffna (Sri Lanka) through an integrated macro- and micro-sociolinguistic analysis of code choice in the community. While Tamil is dominant at present, the international hegemony of English is nevertheless subtly felt. There are now few L2 dominant or balanced bilinguals; grammatical competence in “standard English” is declining; Tamil has taken over many conventionally English domains; extensive use of unmixed English is reduced to a few formal contexts; and political pressure proscribes English. However, through code-switching activity, English continues to be used in a more pervasive form than ever before, in conventional and unconventional contexts, with complex communicative competence. Code-switching helps reconcile the socio-psychological conflicts of the community and assures the continuity of bilingualism (defying prophecies of English death), with the possibility of an Englishized Tamil becoming an independent code. (Bilingualism, code-switching, English, language choice)

Literature and Church Discipline in Early Modern England

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 317-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Smith
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Church History ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Church Discipline ◽  
Religion In Literature ◽  
The Church

That English literature is suffused with religion is news to no one; the English language is throughout history part of the structure of the Church or churches. But there is a way in which Church history and English literature have been missing each other for a good many years. This is in part because, until recently, religion in literature has been the preserve of relatively small groups of enthusiasts with partisan views. Their work has appeared unattractive or irrelevant to a largely secular mainstream that has been preoccupied with the ‘political’ (as opposed to the religious) in early modern literary studies (this is especially so with regard to the drama). But we now have an account of Church history that is more sophisticated and variegated, more attuned to confessional variety and its politics, local and national. This is crying out for engagement with literary studies in ways that literary scholars would find compelling, not least in offering many solutions to the kinds of questions they have come to ask. To some extent the dialogue has already begun, and indeed several exemplary studies are cited in what follows. Nonetheless, we are at the beginning of what may well be a long and extremely fruitful interdisciplinary encounter.

scholarly journals EXPLORING BROWN AND LEVINSON’S POLITENESS THEORY AND THE FORM-FUNCTION FIT IN REQUESTS IN JANE AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE FROM A RELEVANCE-THEORETIC, CONSTRUCTIONIST, AND CONTRASTIVE PERSPECTIVE

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-82
Author(s):  
Elena del Carmen Martínez López
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Pride And Prejudice ◽  
Politeness Theory ◽  
Spanish Translation ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Literature And Language

The aim of this work is to demonstrate and illustrate the pervasive existence of points of convergence between literature and language in general and form and meaning in particular. Specifically, the connection between language and literature is explored with specific reference to one of the germinal works of English literature, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the light of the principles and taxonomies of Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory, with special focus on requests. A further twist added to the analysis presented in this work comes from a relatively fine-nuanced contrastive (English-Spanish) analysis of requests strategies using as the database of analysis a Spanish translation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (Rodríguez, 2018).

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