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Involuntary Associations: Postcolonial Studies and World Englishes

Online ISBN:
9781781381540
Print ISBN:
9781781380253
Publisher:
Liverpool University Press
Book

Involuntary Associations: Postcolonial Studies and World Englishes

David Huddart
David Huddart

Associate Professor of English Literary Studies

Chinese University of Hong Kong
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Published:
1 November 2014
Online ISBN:
9781781381540
Print ISBN:
9781781380253
Publisher:
Liverpool University Press

Abstract

In the context of English’s apparent worldwide spread, this book brings together the fields of postcolonial studies and world Englishes, arguing that this is a necessary and long overdue connection. Although postcolonial studies appears to have its origins in literary studies, and accordingly in the study of language, in fact there have been few connections with fields in linguistics that are clearly relevant to postcolonial approaches to English in particular. The book chiefly makes connections with the growing field of World Englishes studies, considering points of contact, differences in emphasis, and fundamental disagreements. It proposes that postcolonial studies can be renewed through engaging with World Englishes studies, but also that postcolonial studies as a discipline can offer powerful frameworks for World Englishes studies itself. The book examines the existing and potential connections between the fields through examples such as postcolonial dictionaries, postcolonial composition, the language of global citizenship, and the interface between World Literatures and World Englishes. It concludes that World Englishes, by contrast with a monolithic Global English, contribute to a vision of communication that resists globalization’s demand for accessibility and transparency.

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