Interviews with Neville Alexander : the power of languages against the language of power / edited by Brigitta Busch, Lucijan Busch and Karen Press.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Busch, Brigitta, 1955- editor.

Busch, Lucijan, editor.

Press, Karen, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Alexander, Neville.

Language and education--Africa.

Language and education.

Language policy--South Africa.

Language policy.

Educators.

Linguists.

South Africa.

Language and education--South Africa.

Linguists--South Africa--Biography.

Educators--South Africa--Biography.

Political activists--South Africa--Biography.

Political activists.

Africa.

South Africa--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

x, 342 pages : illustrations, map, portraits ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Pietermaritzburg : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2014.

Summary:

In a series of interviews conducted between 2006 and 2010, Neville Alexander reflected on how the languages he had used throughout his life shaped his world and his relationships with his immediate and wider communities. In this reconstruction, the only extensive (auto)biographical work about Alexander in print, his belief in the emancipatory potential of multilingualism frames his vividly recalled life and his incisive observations about language in post-apartheid South Africa. The book also includes some of Alexander's seminal writings on multilingualism, a rewarding yet often neglected aspect of his work. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1. Neville Alexander's language biography

Throwing salt into the whirlwind: childhood and schooldays, 1936-1952

Learning about the power of language: studying in Cape Town, 1953-1958

A matrix of languages: studying in Germany, 1958-1964

University behind bars: Robben Island, 1964-1974

Many languages, one nation: house arrest, 1974-1979

Speak out!: an educational social movement, 1980-1990

Arms outstretched towards the continent: language politics from below, 1991 until the present

The transformative function of language: reflections. Part 2. A selection of Neville Alexander's writings on language

Select bibliography

The national question in South Africa

Language policy and national unity in South Africa/ Azania

Majority and minority languages in South Africa

The African Renaissance and the use of African languages in tertiary education

Street and standard: Managing language in contemporary Africa

The potential role of translation as a social practice for the intellectualisation of African languages.

Notes:

"An earlier version of Part 1 was originally published in German as Neville Alexander im Gespräch : mit der Macht der Sprachen gegen die Sprache der Macht by Drava Verlag (Klagenfurt) in 2011." -- Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781869142773

1869142772

OCLC:

889754850