Rotten English: A Literary Anthology

Description

A global anthology of fiction and poetry in vernacular English. 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. During the last twelve years, half of the Man Booker awards went to novels written in non-standard English. 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 Papua New Guinea's John Kasaipwalova and Tobago's Marlene Nourbese Philip. With concise introductions that explain the context and aesthetics of the vernacular tradition, Rotten English pays tribute to the changes English has undergone as it has become a global language. Contents: "Raal right singin'": vernacular poetry. Colonization in reverse" and Bans O'killing by Louise Bennett Wings of a dove by Kamau Brathwaite Auld lang syne, Highland Mary, and "Bonnie Lesley" by Robert Burns A negro love song and When Malindy sings by Paul Laurence Dunbar Mother to son and Po' boy blues by Langston Hughes Inglan is a bitch by Linton Kwesi Johnson Wukhand by Paul Keens-Douglas Tommy by Rudyard Kipling Unrelated incidents-no.3 by Tom Leonard Comin back ower the border by Mary McCabe Quashie to Buccra by Claude McKay Dis poem by Mutabaruka Questions! Questions! by M. NourbeSe Philip no more love poems #1 by Ntozake Shange "So like I say ... ": vernacular short stories. Po' Sandy by Charles Chestnutt The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Letters from Whetu by Patricia Grace Spunk and Story in Harlem slang by Zora Neale Hurston Betel nut is bad magic for airplanes by John Kasaipwalova Joebell and America by Earl Lovelace The ghost of Firozsha Baag by Rohinton Mistry The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County and A True story, repeated word for word as I heard it by Mark Twain A soft touch and Granny's old junk by Irvine Welsh Only the dead know Brooklyn by Thomas Wolfe. "I wanna say I am somebody": selections from vernacular novels. from True history of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey from The snapper by Roddy Doyle from Once there were warriors by Alan Duff An overture to the commencement of a very rigid journey by Jonathan Safran Foer from Beasts of no nation by Uzodinma Iweala Baywatch and de preacher from Tide running by Oonya Kempadoo Face, from Rolling the R's by R. Zamora Linmark from Londonstani by Gautam Malkani from No mate for the magpie by Frances Molloy from Push by Sapphire from Sozaboy: a novel in rotten English by Ken Saro-Wiwa from The housing lark by Sam Selvon. "A new English": essays on vernacular literature. The African writer and the English. language by Chinua Achebe How to tame a wild tongue by Gloria Anzaldua If Black English isn't a language, then tell me what is? by James Baldwin from History of the voice: the development of nation language in Anglophone Caribbean poetry by Kamau Brathwaite from Minute on Indian education by Thomas Macaulay African speech ... English words by Gabriel Okara The absence of writing or How I almost became a spy by M. NourbeSe Philip Mother tongue by Amy Tan