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Foreword
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."
Discussion Questions
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Vernaculars, according to Rotten English’s introduction, are informal codes that deviate from the official languages found in dictionaries, grammar manuals, and school curricula. What vernaculars do you use? Do you ever code-switch? Did the works contained here make you think differently about your own experience and use of language?
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Which selections felt easier to read, and which were more difficult? What were some of the strategies that you used to decipher the more difficult ones? Did the author provide you with any assistance or clues?
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What does the collection say about the commonalities between colonized, economically marginalized, and enslaved people? What similarities can you see here, and what differences?
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Compare the portrayals of immigration in Louise Bennett’s “Colonization in Reverse,” Linton Kwesi Johnson’s “Inglan Is a Bitch,” and Junot Díaz’s “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” How would you account for those differences?
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What do you see as the purpose of the italicized portions in Rohinton Mistry’s “The Ghost of Firozsha Baag”? Why does Mistry end the story with an image of Goan curry?
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How is Standard English depicted in these works? (Think in particular of Sozaboy, “Unrelated Incidents—No. 3,” “Joebell and America,” “Letters from Whetu,” “Bans O’Killing,” and the essays by James Baldwin and Gloria Anzaldúa.) What does that depiction tell you about the author’s position and goals?
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What are some of the techniques that the speaker in Paul Keens-Douglas’s “Wukhand” uses to gain employment? What do you think were the author’s intentions in writing the poem?
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Use the links below to listen to the audio files of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “When Malindy Sings,” Tom Leonard’s “Unrelated Incidents—No. 3,” and Mutabaruka’s “Dis Poem.” After listening to each one, do you interpret that poem any differently?
Leonard, “Unrelated Incidents—No. 3” (listed here as “The Six O’Clock News”):
Dunbar, “When Malindy Sings”:
Mutabaruka, “Dis Poem”:
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Which of the essays did you find most helpful in elucidating the authors’ techniques elsewhere in Rotten English? Conversely, are there issues or techniques brought up in some essays that you never saw reflected in the literary selections?
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In what ways do you see language and community working in tandem in the selection from Sam Selvon’s The Housing Lark? Where does spoken language serve to reinforce the West Indian community in London, and vice versa?
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Had you read any of these selections previously? Did you come to think of them differently in the context of this anthology?
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Can you think of other examples of vernacular literature that you didn’t see here? If you had been compiling the anthology, what else would you have included?
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