“When we borrow an alien language … we must stretch it, impact and compact it, fragment and reassemble it.”
~ Wole Soyinka
The articles/books below demonstrate the dynamic and shifting roles of English in world literature. They highlight the necessity of speakers of World Englishes to be sensitive to cultural differences and analyze how those cultural differences are reflected in the literatures of “new” Englishes. The writers pay attention to the resilient nature of English, including its adaptability and adoptability, and show how the new varieties of English and literatures developed in postcolonial contexts, in particular, challenge our monolithic concept of English and promote creative and innovative usages of the language.
Bokamba, E. “The Africanisation of English.” The Other Tongue: English across Cultures, edited by B. Kachru, Illinois University Press, 1982, pp. 77–98.
Canagarajah, S. “Competing Discourses in Sri Lankan English Poetry.” World Englishes, vol. 13, 1994, pp. 361–76.
Clayton, T. Language Choice in a Nation under Transition: English Language Spread in Cambodia. Springer, 2006.
Cultural Survival. The Asmara Declaration on African Languages and Literatures. 2010. Available at: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/none/asmara-declaration-african-languages-and-literatures
Dawson Varughese, E. Beyond the Postcolonial: World Englishes Literature, Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2012.
Desai, A. (1996) “A Coat of Many Colours.” South Asian English: Structure, Use and Users, edited by R. Baumgardner, University of Illinois Press, 1996, pp. 221–30.
Ha Jin. “In Defence of Foreignness.” The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, edited by A. Kirkpatrick, Routledge, 2010, pp. 461–70.
Hashmi, Alamgir. “Prolegomena to the Study of Pakistani English and Pakistani Literature in English” (1989) Pakistani Literature (a journal published by the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad), vol. 2, no. 1, 1993, pp. 245-261.
Hashmi, Alamgir. “A Select Bibliography of Pakistani Literature in English” Pakistani Literature (a journal published by the Pakistan Academy of Letters, Islamabad), vol. 2, no. 1, 1993, pp. 263-270.
Hickey, R., ed. Legacies of Colonial English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Huddart, David. Involuntary Associations: Postcolonial Studies and World Englishes, Liverpool University Press, 2014.
Kirkpatrick, A., ed. The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, Routledge, 2010.
Naik, M. K. and Narayan, S. A. Indian English Literature 1980–2000: A Critical Survey, Pencraft International, 2004.
Percillier, Michael, and Catherine Paulin. “A corpus-based investigation of world Englishes in literature.” World Englishes, vol. 36, no.1, 2017, pp. 127-47.
Saro-Wiwa, K. Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, Saros International, 1985.
Schmied, J. English in Africa, Longman, 1991.
Schneider, E. Postcolonial English: Varieties around the World. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Sidwa, B. “Creative Processes in Pakistani English Fiction.” South Asian English: Structure, Use and Users, edited by R. Baumgardner, University of Illinois Press, 1996, pp. 231–240.