| Description |
339 pages ; 22 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-333) and index. |
| Contents |
A shuttlecock above the Atlantic: Nabokov's mid-life and mid-geographic crises -- Chinky writing -- The politics of design: Arundhati Roy -- "The shit that's other": unintelligible languages -- Losing our English, losing our language: the unintelligibility of postcolonial theory. |
| Summary |
"With increasing frequency, readers of literature are encountering barely intelligible, sometimes unrecognizable languages created by combining one or more languages with English. Evelyn Ch'ien argues that weird English constitutes the new language of literature, implicitly launching a new literary theory. Weird English explores experimental and unorthodox uses of English by multilingual writers traveling from the canonical works of Nabokov and Hong Kingston to the less critiqued linguistic terrain of Junot Diacute;az and Arundhati Roy. It examines the syntactic and grammatical innovations of these authors, who use English to convey their ambivalence toward or enthusiasm for English or their political motivations for altering its rules. Ch'ien looks at how the collision of other languages with English invigorated and propelled the evolution of language in the twentieth century and beyond. Ch'ien defines the allure and tactical features of a new writerly genre, even as she herself writes with a sassiness and verve that communicates her ideas with great panache"--Publisher description. |
| Subject |
English fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism.
|
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English fiction. |
| Chronological Term |
20th century |
| Subject |
Language and languages in literature.
|
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Language and languages in literature. |
|
English fiction -- 21st century -- History and criticism.
|
| Chronological Term |
21st century |
| Subject |
Dialect literature, American -- History and criticism.
|
|
Dialect literature, American. |
|
Dialect literature, English -- History and criticism.
|
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Dialect literature, English. |
|
Languages in contact -- English-speaking countries.
|
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Languages in contact. |
|
English-speaking countries. |
|
American fiction -- History and criticism.
|
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American fiction. |
|
English language -- Foreign elements.
|
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English language -- Foreign elements. |
|
Multiculturalism in literature.
|
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Multiculturalism in literature. |
|
English language -- Variation.
|
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English language -- Variation. |
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Minorities in literature.
|
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Minorities in literature. |
|
Speech in literature.
|
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Speech in literature. |
|
Languages, Mixed.
|
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Languages, Mixed. |
| ISBN |
0674013379 alkaline paper |
|
