Linguistic Elitism

Blasphemer,

I cant stand intellectual laziness...why should you be spoonfed? Do the work.

2. etc.

by Anuradha Dingwaney Needham. New York: St. Martin`s, 2000. xii + 176 pp. ISBN 0-312-22542-3 cloth.

``The master`s tools will never dismantle the master`s house,`` declared the poet Audre Lorde in 1979. The phrase has a powerfully intuitive appeal but, like other slogans, should probably come with a warning label: Not to be taken literally. For if it seems to urge a radical break with the standards of an oppressive culture, it remains perhaps too respectful of the rights of property itself, especially where matters of language are concerned. Who, we might ask, built ...

Saminasha

I was asking you a question, not asking for a cut and pasted article. I dont think you understood the question. Thats OK, if you dont understand.

Blasph,

What part of ``I am busy`` eludes you?

Here are some texts; draw your own conclusions:

1. Teaching with ``Meta Warrick`s 1907 `Negro Tableaux```

The writer and activist Audre Lorde`s famous essay title, ``The Master`s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master`s House,`` bears directly on the challenge faced by many turn-of-the-century African American intellectuals and artists.1 I often ask students to consider what ``tools`` African Americans had in their ``tool box`` that they could use to represent the fullness of their abilities, aspirations, and accomplishments. Given the pervasiveness of racist representations of African Americans in American culture, popular and elite, where and how should African American intellectuals and artists have begun to challenge them?

The dilemma that African American artists faced was acute. Many had struggled against discrimination to acquire and contribute to the canon of Victorian culture. By establishing their ability to uphold and advance ``civilization,`` which was understood to be the highest stage of human development, African American intellectuals aspired to expose the falsehood of black inferiority. Yet these same intellectuals and artists could not avoid the conundrum posed by Lorde. How could African Americans adopt (and adapt) prevailing ideals of beauty, culture, progress, and creativity without at the same time consenting to some of the racist assumptions that permeated those ideals? How could Meta Warrick, a sculptor trained in the classical tradition in Paris, artistically render African Americans and their history at a time when neither were considered fitting artistic subjects?

Saminasha

I wasnt looking for info, I was asking you a question.

#19,

very busy....please find info on your own, thanks!

Saminasha

I have done the research about the lesbian poet. I dont have any answers though because she is dead and I was asking you a question in order to engage you in a discussion. I wont bite you. Honestly. I am just interested in the issues your statement raises. Dont be cryptic.

So, why should you want to dismantle a house? That makes you a vandal and a nihilist. Dont you think a better analogy would be to extend the house, re-arrange and re-decorate the house to make it big enough to shelter all?

Blaphemer,

Once you do the research, you`ll discover the answers.

Sam

OK, I will google for Audre Lorde. Now, what do you say about my other points?

Blasph,

Google Audre Lorde.

Saminashah

[[Audre Lorde`s take on English: ``We will use the master`s tools to dismantle his house``, an idea Edward Said has echoed]]

Who was Audre Lorde? Why should you want to dismantle a house? That makes you a vandal and a nihilist. Dont you think a better analogy would be to extend the house, re-arrange and re-decorate the house to make it big enough to shelter all?

It is not unusual for many to speak appologistically about enlgish. After all, we have invested a lot of energies to learn it, have taken pride in being proficient in it and now we are sort of `involved` in it. At least, for the sort of people this website is about, english has become a part of their veryc culture. It is important to know the perspective from where to judge this issue.

My case against english would be that of communication. Over the course of my life, I have known many people and almost all of them have had urdu/hindi as their birth language. Later on, some of them have learnt english and some havn`t. In this way, our communication has become two pronged which is simply irritating. As if, my soul`s exposure to the cultural aspect of language would have been a lot purer than this, had I possessed only one langauge at my disposal.

When I want to talk about Ghalib or Faiz over here, these same size characters do not offer me much help.

Hi....I new member to this website but have been reading articles for some time..found this an interesting and different topic from the usual politics and religion themes. I come from quite a mad varied background in that english is not my mother tongue but certainly has become my preferred language of choice in most situations. Honestly languages have always been identifiers of cilivilisations and the popularity of languages globally have coincided with how far respective civilisations spread. Normally speaking the depth, the range of vocabulary and expression can also be linked with the geographic spread of a civilisation and its language. By that mean as authors like Khuswant Singh have mentioned, the strength of english is its absoulute bastardisation. The modern english language reflects more multi-cultural absorption than any other language in the history of mankind. As someone has mentioned below, english itself is so diverse that various regions like South Asia, the Caribbean, North America and Australasia have all come up with their quite uniqye derivatives of the english we know as general standard english.

Hi....I new member to this website but have been reading articles for some time..found this an interesting and different topic from the usual politics and religion themes. I come from quite a mad varied background in that english is not my mother tongue but certainly has become my preferred language of choice in most situations. Honestly languages have always been identifiers of cilivilisations and the popularity of languages globally have coincided with how far respective civilisations spread. Normally speaking the depth, the range of vocabulary and expression can also be linked with the geographic spread of a civilisation and its language. By that mean as authors like Khuswant Singh have mentioned, the strength of english is its absoulute bastardisation. The modern english language reflects more multi-cultural absorption than any other language in the history of mankind. As someone has mentioned below, english itself is so diverse that various regions like South Asia, the Caribbean, North America and Australasia have all come up with their quite uniqye derivatives of the english we know as general standard english.

wasn`t it rushdie who said something about ``the empire writes back to and from the centre. . .`` and there have been writers who`ve written back with a vengeance. i think jawahara refers to this in her post somewhat.

we may have had english imposed upon us, but it doesn`t necessarily follow that we lose our own culture, whatever that means, in the process.

There are other colonial languages to whom this applies, not just English. French for eg has always had grandiose plans of global dominance and I strongly suspect the Frenchman in your opening paragraph is more saddened by the strangulation of the Francophone world by the Anglophone movement than of any threat posed by English to the French language, which would be fantastical indeed when you consider the pride the French possess in their language and the contempt they direct to the British and whatever they do.

Also, while I agree that language is linked with culture, I can`t agree that it`s an either/or scenario on the subcontinent at least. Most of us are used to switching between cultures, between languages without it affecting native linguistic loyalties. And as for one affecting/changing the other - I dont think thats a bad thing. There have been some very exciting works coming out of the vernaculars written by authors who have access to world or English literature.