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Rotten English: a literary anthology.
GIC Collection at Penn Libraries
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ahmad, Dohra.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Literature: Colonialism, Empire, and Postcolonial Studies.
- Local Subjects:
- Literature: Colonialism, Empire, and Postcolonial Studies.
- Summary:
- Rotten English spans the globe to offer an overview of the best non-standard English writing of the past two centuries, with a focus on the most recent decades. What would once have been derogatorily termed "dialect literature" has come into its own in a language known variously as slang, creole, patois, pidgin, or, in the words of Nigerian novelist Ken Saro-Wiwa, "rotten English."
- The first anthology of its kind, Rotten English celebrates vernacular literature from around the English-speaking world, from Robert Burns, Mark Twain, and Zora Neale Hurston to Roddy Doyle, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Tobago's M. NourbeSe Philip. With concise introductions that explain the context and aesthetics of the vernacular tradition, this anthology pays tribute to the changes English has undergone as it has become a global language.
- Contents:
- Introduction: "This Is Ma Trooth" 15
- Section 1 "Raal Right Singin'": Vernacular Poetry 33
- / Louise Bennett 37
- "Colonization in Reverse" and "Bans O'Killing" 38
- / Kamau Brathwaite 42
- "Wings of a Dove" 43
- / Robert Burns 49
- "Auld Lang Syne," "Highland Mary," and "Bonnie Lesley" 50
- / Paul Laurence Dunbar 56
- "A Negro Love Song" and "When Malindy Sings" 57
- / Langston Hughes 61
- "Mother to Son" and "Po' Boy Blues" 62
- / Linton Kwesi Johnson 64
- "Inglan Is a Bitch" 65
- / Paul Keens-Douglas 68
- "Wukhand" 69
- / Rudyard Kipling 73
- "Tommy" 74
- / Tom Leonard 77
- "Unrelated Incidents-No. 3" 78
- / Mary McCabe 80
- "Comin Back Ower the Border" 81
- / Claude McKay 82
- "Quashie to Buccra" 83
- / Mutabaruka 85
- "Dis Poem" 86
- / M. NourbeSe Philip 90
- "Questions! Questions!" 91
- / Ntozake Shange 92
- "No more love poems #I" 93
- Section 2 "So Like I Say...": Vernacular Short Stories 97
- / Charles Chesnutt 101
- "Po' Sandy" 102
- / Junot Diaz 115
- "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" 116
- / Patricia Grace 165
- "Letters from Whetu" 166
- / Zora Neale Hurston 181
- "Spunk" and "Story in Harlem Slang" 182
- / John Kasaipwalova 202
- "Betel Nut Is Bad Magic for Airplanes" 203
- / Earl Lovelace 214
- "Joebell and America" 215
- / Rohinton Mistry 232
- "The Ghost of Firozsha Baag" 233
- / Mark Twain 251
- "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and "A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It" 252
- / Irvine Welsh 266
- "A Soft Touch" and "Granny's Old Junk" 267
- / Thomas Wolfe 282
- "Only the Dead Know Brooklyn" 283
- Section 3 "I Wanna Say I Am Somebody": Selections from Vernacular Novels 291
- / Peter Carey 295
- from True History of the Kelly Gang 296
- / Roddy Doyle 300
- from The Snapper 301
- / Alan Duff 321
- from Once Were Warriors 322
- / Jonathan Safran Foer 325
- "An Overture to the Commencement of a Very Rigid Journey," from Everything is Illuminated 326
- / Uzodinma Iweala 330
- from Beasts of No Nation 331
- / Oonya Kempadoo 339
- "Baywatch and de Preacher," from Tide Running 340
- / R. Zamora Linmark 345
- "Face," from Rolling the R's 346
- / Gautam Malkani 348
- from Londonstani 349
- / Frances Molloy 362
- from No Mate for the Magpie 363
- / Sapphire 377
- from Push 378
- / Ken Saro-Wiwa 390
- from Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English I said to myself, " trouble don begin" 391
- / Sam Selvon 398
- from The Housing Lark 399
- Section 4 "A New English": Essays on Vernacular Literature 421
- / Chinua Achebe 425
- from "The African Writer and the English Language" 426
- / Gloria Anzaldua 436
- "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," from Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza 437
- / James Baldwin 452
- "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" 453
- / Kamau Brathwaite 458
- from History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry 459
- / Thomas Macaulay 469
- from "Minute on Indian Education" 470
- / Gabriel Okara 475
- "African Speech...English Words" 476
- / M. NourbeSe Philip 480
- "The Absence of Writing or How I Almost Became a Spy" 481
- / Amy Tan 502
- "Mother Tongue" 503.
- ISBN:
- 9780393329605
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