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Irish standard English
(2006)
Rhythmus im Türkendeutschen
(2011)
Celtic and Afro-Asiatic
(2007)
Extract: [...]It is not remarkable that structural similarities between the Insular Celtic and some Afro-Asiatic1 languages continue to exert a fascination on many people. Research into any language may be enlightening with regard to the understanding of all languages, and languages that show similar features are particularly likely to provide useful information. It is remarkable that the structural similarities between Insular Celtic and Afro-Asiatic languages continue to be interpreted as diagnostic of some sort of special relationship between them; some sort of affinity or mutual affiliation that goes beyond the fact that they are two groups of human languages. This paper investigates again the fallacious nature of the arguments for the Afro-Asiatic/Insular Celtic contact theory (henceforth AA/IC contact theory). It takes its point of departure from Gensler (1993). That work is as yet unpublished, but has had considerable resonance. Such statements as the following indicate the importance that has been attached to the work: “After the studies of Morris-Jones, Pokorny, Wagner2 and Gensler it seems impossible to deny the special links between Insular Celtic and Afro-Asiatic” (Jongeling 2000:64). And the ideas in question have been propagated in the popular scientific press,3 with the usual corollary that it is these ideas that are perceived by the interested but non-specialist public as being at the cutting edge of sound new research, when in fact they may simply be recycled ideas of a discredited theory. For these reasons it is appropriate to subject Gensler’s unpublished work to detailed critique.4 In particular, with regard to the twenty features of affinity between Insular Celtic and Afro-Asiatic which Gensler investigated, it will be shown (yet again, in some cases): [...]
Writing an alternative Australia : women and national discourse in nineteenth-century literature
(2007)
In this thesis, I want to outline the emergence of the Australian national identity in colonial Australia. National identity is not a politically determined construct but culturally produced through discourse on literary works by female and male writers. The emergence of the dominant bushman myth exhibited enormous strength and influence on subsequent generations and infused the notion of “Australianness” with exclusively male characteristics. It provided a unique geographical space, the bush, on and against which the colonial subject could model his identity. Its dominance rendered non-male and non-bush experiences of Australia as “un-Australian.” I will present a variety of contemporary voices – postcolonial, Aboriginal, feminist, cultural critics – which see the Australian identity as a prominent topic, not only in the academia but also in everyday culture and politics. Although positioned in different disciplines and influenced by varying histories, these voices share a similar view on Australian society: Australia is a plural society, it is home to millions of different people – women, men, and children, Aboriginal Australians and immigrants, newly arrived and descendents of the first settlers – with millions of different identities which make up one nation. One version of national identity does not account for the multitude of experiences; one version, if applied strictly, renders some voices unheard and oppressed. After exemplifying how the literature of the 1890s and its subsequent criticism constructed the itinerant worker as “the” Australian, literary productions by women will be singled out to counteract the dominant version by presenting different opinions on the state of colonial Australia. The writers Louisa Lawson, Barbara Baynton, and Tasma are discussed with regard to their assessment of their mother country. These women did not only present a different picture, they were also gifted writers and lived the ideal of the “New Women:” they obtained divorces, remarried, were politically active, worked for their living and led independent lives. They paved the way for many Australian women to come. In their literary works they allowed for a dual approach to the bush and the Australian nation. Louisa Lawson credited the bushwoman with heroic traits and described the bush as both cruel and full of opportunities not known to women in England. She understood women’s position in Australian society as oppressed and tried to change politics and culture through the writings in her feminist magazine the Dawn and her courageous campaign for women suffrage. Barbara Baynton painted a gloomy picture of the Australian bush and its inhabitants and offered one of the fiercest critiques of bush society. Although the woman is presented as the able and resourceful bushperson, she does not manage to survive in an environment which functions on male rules and only values the economic potential of the individual. Finally, Tasma does not present as outright a critique as Barbara Baynton, however, she also attests the colonies a fascination with wealth which she renders questionable. She offers an informed judgement on colonial developments in the urban surrounds of the city of Melbourne through the comparison of colonial society with the mother country England. Tasma attests that the colonies had a fascination with wealth which she renders questionable. She offers an informed judgement on colonial developments in the urban surrounds of the city of Melbourne through the comparison of colonial society with the mother country England and demonstrates how uncertainties and irritations emerged in the course of Australia’s nation formation. These three women, as writers, commentators, and political activists, faced exclusion from the dominant literary discourses. Their assessment of colonial society remained unheard for a long time. Now, after much academic excavation, these voices speak to us from the past and remind us that people are diverse, thus nation is diverse. Dominant power structures, the institutions and individuals who decide who can contribute to the discourse on nation, have to be questioned and reassessed, for they mute voices which contribute to a wider, to the “full”, and maybe “real” picture of society.
Extract: [...]It is true that scholars concentrate on a certain linguistic level in order to reach the greatest depth in their research. But this general stance should not lead to a complete neglect of other levels. When considering a multi-level phenomenon such as language contact and shift, concentration on a single linguistic level can have the unintended and unfortunate consequence of missing linguistically significant generalisations. This is especially true of the main division of linguistic research into a phonological and a grammatical camp, where syntacticians miss phonological generalisations and phonologists syntactic ones. In the present paper the interrelationship of syntax and prosody is investigated with a view to explaining how and why certain transfer structures from Irish became established in Irish English. In this context, the consideration of prosody can be helpful in explaining the precise form of transfer structures in the target variety, here vernacular Irish English. The data for the investigation will consider well-known features of this variety, such as unbound reflexives, non-standard comparatives and tag questions. Furthermore, the paper points out that, taking prosodic patterns into account, can help in extrapolating from individual transfer to the community- wide establishment of transfer structures. In sum, prosody is an essential element in any holistic account of language contact and shift.[...]
Die fachdidaktischen Tagespraktika (FTP) bilden ein Kernelement im Potsdamer Modell der Lehrerbildung, weist man ihnen doch eine „studienleitende Funktion“ zu. Wie aber realisiert sich diese Funktion in den einzelnen Fächern an der Universität Potsdam und welche Folgen ergeben sich für die Ausbildung der Lehramtsstudierenden ? Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage wurde eine Analyse der Verankerung der FTP in allen Studienordnungen hinsichtlich qualitativer (Inhalte und Ziele, Prüfungsformen, Belegungsvoraussetzungen) und quantitativer (Leistungspunkte, Semesterwochenstunden) Kriterien durchgeführt. Leitfadengestützte Interviews mit verantwortlichen Fachdidaktikerinnen und Fachdidaktikern dienten der Untersuchung der konkreten Umsetzung und der Relevanzzuschreibung. Ziel war es, durch das Zusammenführen beider Zugänge – der realiter existierenden Curricula, der individualisierten Praktiken sowie der subjektiven Überzeugungen – ein Verständnis eben jener „studienleitenden Funktion“ zu erlangen und anschließend Diskussions- und Handlungsfelder für die Weiterentwicklung des FTP herauszuarbeiten.
Content: 1. Objectives 2. Sociohistorical Background 2.1. The Cornish 2.2. The Welsh 2.3. The Bretons 3. Characteristics of the Brythonic Naming System 3.1. Type 1 Names: Patronymic Lineage 3.2. Type 2 Names: Geographic Origin or Place of Residence 3.3. Type 3 Names: Occupational Activities (Generally Linked to Peasantry) 3.4. Type 4 Names: Physical Characteristics, Moral Flaws 3.5. Type 5 Names: Epithets Relating to Character, Titles of Nobility, etc. 3.6. Epithets Containing References to Victory, War, Warriors, Weapons 3.7. Epithets Containing References to Courage, Strength, Impetuousness and War-like Animals 3.8. Epithets Containing References to Honorific Titles, Noble Lineage, Social Status and Aristocratic Values 4. Summary
Extract: [...]In the first part of this paper I trace the language shift from Breton to French within the historical, social and ideological framework in which it occurred. I then argue that 19th and 20th-century attempts by scholars and militants to rehabilitate the Breton language led to the creation of a unified standard (peurunvan).2 The consequence has been the rise of a three-way diglossic rapport between the speakers of French, the new Breton standard3 and those of the traditional Breton vernaculars. Taking the varieties of southern Cornouaille (Finistère) between Quimper and Quimperlé as a point of comparison,4 I focus on a number of phonological, morphological, syntactical and lexical features which, though far from exhausttive, are not generally taken into account in the new standard language. These details provide a general idea of how varieties of Breton function at the micro-dialectological level, as well as ways in which they can differ from the standard and other spoken varieties. The paper concludes with observations regarding the necessity to consider languages, language varieties and their speakers within relevant social contexts.[...]
Over the last decades Britain´s ethnic minorities have successfully established themselves in a multicultural society. In particular, Indian – Hindu communities generally improved their social and economic situation. In this context, the third generation of British Indians is now growing up. In contrast to the previous generation of the Indian diaspora, these children grow up in an established ethnic community, which learned to retain its religion, traditions and culture in a foreign environment. At the same time, these children are part of the multicultural British society. Based on the academic discussion about the second generation of immigrated ethnic communities, when the youth often suffered from cultural differences, racism and discrimination and therefore rejected aspects of their culture of origin, this paper assumes that the loss of the culture of origin further increases in the third generation. This thesis follows the main theories about the connection between generation and integration. It is believed that the preference of western culture influences the personal, ethnic and cultural identity of young people. This leads to the rejection of traditional bonds. Before introducing this thesis various theoretical concepts are discussed which are inevitable for the comprehension of the diasporic situation in which British Indian youngsters grow up. As part of the worldwide Asian Indian diaspora Indian families in Britain maintain manifold links to Indian communities in various countries. Particularly, the link to India plays a decisive role; the subcontinent is referred to as an abstract homeland, especially by the first generation. While the grandparents strongly adhere to their Indian culture and Hindu religion, the second generation already generated cultural change. In this process various cultural values of the Indian ethnic community have been questioned and modified. Further, the second generation pushed the integration into the British society by giving up the dependence on the ethnic network. This paper is based on a hybrid and fluent definition of culture. This definition also applies to the underlying understanding of identity and ethnicity. Due to migration, cultural contact and the multilocality of the diaspora, diasporic and post-diasporic identities and cultures are characterized by hybridity, heterogeneity, fragmentation and flexibility. Particularly, in the younger generation – though dependent on a number of social and structural factors - cultural change and mixture happen; in this process new ethnicities and identities evolve. In the second and third part of this paper the thesis of loss of culture of origin is refuted on the basis of findings from empirical research. British - Indian youngsters in London have been questioned for the study. Half of the youngsters are related to a sampradaya, a Hindu sect. This enables the author to compare youngsters who do not belong to a particular religious group with those who are included into a religious and / or ethnic community through a sampradaya. The analysis of the findings which are based on qualitative and quantitative social research shows that the young people have great interest in their culture of origin and that they aim to maintain this culture in the diaspora. They identify as Indian and are proud of their cultural differences. In this, they differ from the second generation. In contrast to the generation of their grandparents the Indian identity of the third generation is not based on nostalgic memories. They confirm and emphasize their postdiasporic difference in a western multicultural society. The findings from the survey hereby exceed the thesis from Hansen’s theory about the rediscovery of the culture of origin in the third generation. The comparison of both groups shows that in the context of the differentiation of postmodern and postcolonial communities also ethnic groups become increasingly differentiated. Therefore, the Indian heritage and culture does not play the same role for every young British Indian.
Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt eine Lehrveranstaltungskooperation zur Verzahnung von Fachwissenschaften (Sprachwissenschaft) und Fachdidaktik im Lehramtsstudium Englisch an der Universität Potsdam vor. Die Kooperation besteht aus zwei Seminaren. Während andere Fächer (u. a. Mathematik, Naturwissenschaften, Geschichte) bereits in der ersten Phase des PSI-Projekts Erkenntnisse zur Erfassung des erweiterten Fachwissens für den schulischen Kontext (eFWsK) vorgelegt haben, widmet sich die Englischdidaktik der Strukturierung des Professionswissens im Fach erst seit wenigen Jahren. Der Versuch, das eFWsK-Modell auf das Fach Englisch zu übertragen, stellt die Disziplin aus diversen Gründen vor eine besondere Herausforderung. Am Beispiel zweier verzahnter Lehrveranstaltungen zur Entwicklung von Diagnosefähigkeiten angehender Lehrkräfte zur Beurteilung von Sprechleistungen wird erörtert, welches fachwissenschaftliche und fachdidaktische Wissen durch die Verzahnung der beiden Disziplinen erworben wird. Zugleich werden offene Fragen diskutiert, die sich aus der Kooperation mit Blick auf eine Systematisierung relevanter fachwissenschaftlicher Inhalte für das Lehramtsstudium ergeben. Im Ausblick wird erörtert, warum eine Systematisierung des fachlichen Professionswissens mittels einer Delphi-Studie im Fach Englisch sinnvoll erscheint.
This paper deals with the teaching of grammar in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. In this context, a course book (English G 21 A2) is examined in regard to whether it is compatible with current theories about second language acquisition (SLA).
At the beginning of this paper, views on grammar teaching from the past and the present are summarized and this is followed by an analysis of the current curriculum concerning its guidelines for grammar teaching in the foreign language classroom. This analysis concludes that the curriculum of Brandenburg hardly gives any recommendations regarding the question of which grammatical phenomena should to be taught. This explains, at least partly, the important position course books take in the foreign language classroom. Teachers use them as a source of material as well has a guideline for which topics can be taught and in which order.
The following part gives an overview of cognitive models of SLA and foreign language teaching, among others Krashen’s Monitor Hypothesis, R. Ellis’ Weak Interface Model and Pienemann’s Processability Theory. On the basis of these models criteria for the ideal design of a course book, which would support grammar teaching according to current findings, are developed. Among those criteria are the offering of a lot of input in the target language, provision of practice activities and consciousness-raising activities, taking into consideration the sequence of acquisition and the provision of a diagnostic tool which enables the students to find out in which areas of the target language they need to improve. Furthermore, the inclusion of opportunities for (individual) revision is regarded as essential. All of those criteria are of course given under the reservation that the influence of course books on the happenings in the classroom is restricted as the final decisions are made by the teacher in the teaching situation.
In the analysis, one communicative intention which is usually a topic in the English lessons between the third and sixth year of learning is focused on. This communicative intention is talking about the future. First, the possibilities to express futurity in the English language are analysed and reduced for the use in teaching. The chosen course book is then described and analysed and the way the book deals with the topic of talking about the future is compared to the criteria which where specified earlier in the paper. This comparison showed that the book is compatible with SLA theories in many ways (e.g. concerning the explanations of grammatical structures) but that there is still room for improvement (e.g. concerning the amount of input and the number of consciousness-raising activities).
Especially for the last twenty years, the studies of Linguistic Landscapes (LLs) have been gaining the status as an autonomous linguistic discipline. The LL of a (mostly) geographically limited area – which consists of e.g. billboards, posters, shop signs, material for election campaigns, etc. – gives deep insights into the presence or absence of languages in that particular area. Thus, LL not only allows to conclude from the presence of a language to its dominance, but also from its absence to the oppression of minorities, above all in areas where minority languages should – demographically seen – be visible. The LLs of big cities are fruitful research areas due to the mass of linguistic data. The first part of this paper deals with the theoretical and practical research that has been conducted in LL studies so far. A summary of the theory, methodologies and different approaches is given. In the second part I apply the theoretical basis to my own case study. For this, the LLs of two shopping streets in different areas of Hong Kong were examined in 2010. It seems likely that the linguistic competence of English must be rather high in Hong Kong, due to the long-lasting influence of British culture and mentality and the official status of the language. The case study's results are based on empirical data showing the objectively visible presence of English in both examined areas, as well as on two surveys. Those were conducted both openly and anonymously. The surveys are a reinsurance measuring the level of linguistic competence of English in Hong Kong. That level was defined before by an analysis of the LL. Hence, this case study is a new approach to LL analysis which does not end with the description of its material composition (as have done most studies before), but which rather includes its creators by asking in what way people's actual linguistic competence is reflected in Hong Kong's LL.
Hunting Down Animal Verbs
(2022)
Language change is an essential feature of human language, and it is therefore one of the focal areas of the scientific study of language. Language change is always tacitly at work in all languages of the world and at all levels of a given language, be it phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc. It has been suggested that it is precisely the capacity to constantly change and adjust that allows language to keep serving the communicative goals of its users, from ancient to modern times (Fauconnier & Turner, 2003, p. 179).
This thesis investigates an especially salient pattern of lexicogrammatical change, namely word-formation of verbs from animal nouns by zero-derivation, in the process of which such nouns as, for example, dog, horse, or beaver change their usage and meaning to produce animal verbs: to dog ‘to follow someone persistently and with a malicious intent’, to horse about/around ‘to make fun of, to ‘rag’, to ridicule someone’ and to beaver away ‘to work at working with great enthusiasm’ respectively. In the previous literature this pattern of language change has been termed verbal zoosemy (e.g. Kiełtyka, 2016), i.e. metaphorical construal of human actions by means of linguistic material from the domain of animals.
The approach taken in this study is not to simply report on the objective changes in the morphology, syntactic distribution and meaning of such linguistic units before and after conversion, but to uncover the complexity of cognitive mechanisms which allow the speakers of English to reclassify such well-established nominal units as animal noun into verbs. It is assumed that the grammatical change in these lexical units is predicated on and triggered by preceding semantic change. Thus, the study is set in the framework of Cognitive Historical Semantics and employs the Conceptual Metaphor and Metonymy Theory (CMMT) to untangle the intricacies of the semantic change making the grammatical change of animal nouns into verbs possible and acceptable in the minds of English speakers.
To this end, this study employed the Oxford English Dictionary Online (OED Online) to compile a glossary of 96 denominal animal verbal forms tied to 209 verbal senses (most verbs in the dataset displayed polysemy). The data collected from the OED Online included not only the senses of the verbs, but also the date of the earliest recorded use of the verbal form with the given sense (regarded in the study as the date of conversion), the earliest usage examples for individual senses and morphologically or semantically related linguistic units from the lexical field of the respective parent noun which were amenable to explaining the observed instances of semantic change. Each instance of zoosemisation, i.e. of the creation of a separate metaphorical verbal sense, was then carefully analysed on the basis of the data collected and classified with the help of the CMMT. In the final stage, a comprehensive and systematic classification of the senses of animal verbs in accordance with the cognitive mechanisms of their creation (metaphor, metonymy, or a combination thereof) was produced together with a timeline of the first appearance of individual metaphorical senses of animal verbs recorded in the OED.
The results show that animal verbs are produced through the interaction of conceptual metaphor and metonymy. Specifically, it was established that two major patterns of metaphor-metonymy interaction underpinning the process of verbal zoosemisation are metaphor from metonymy and metonymy from metaphor. In the former pattern, either an already existing metonymic animal verb is expanded to include the target domain PEOPLE, or the animal noun itself acts as a metonymic vehicle to a certain element of the idealised cognitive model of the given animal, which is metaphorically projected onto people. In the latter mechanism, a metaphorical projection of an animal term initially enters the lexicon in the form of a metaphorical animal noun referring to a human entity, and later in the course of language development it comes to metonymically stand for the action, which the given entity either performs or is involved in. Secondarily, it was observed that individual animal nouns can undergo multiple rounds of zoosemic conversion over time depending on the semantic frame in which the given linguistic unit undergoes denominal conversion, and that results in the polysemy of most animal verbs.
Postcolonial Justice
(2016)
Introduction
(2013)
Kleine Kosmopolitismen
(2016)
The Making of Tupaia’s Map
(2018)
Tupaia’s Map is one of the most famous and enigmatic artefacts to emerge from the early encounters between Europeans and Pacific Islanders. It was drawn by Tupaia, an arioi priest, chiefly advisor and master navigator from Ra‘iātea in the Leeward Society Islands in collaboration with various members of the crew of James Cook’s Endeavour, in two distinct moments of mapmaking and three draft stages between August 1769 and February 1770. To this day, the identity of many islands on the chart, and the logic of their arrangement have posed a riddle to researchers. Drawing in part on archival material hitherto overlooked, in this long essay we propose a new understanding of the chart’s cartographic logic, offer a detailed reconstruction of its genesis, and thus for the first time present a comprehensive reading of Tupaia’s Map. The chart not only underscores the extent and mastery of Polynesian navigation, it is also a remarkable feat of translation between two very different wayfinding systems and their respective representational models.
La carte de Tupaia constitue l’un des artéfacts les plus célèbres et les plus énigmatiques à émerger des toutes premières rencontres entre Européens et îliens du Pacifique. Elle a été élaborée entre août 1769 et février 1770 par Tupaia, prêtre ’arioi, conseiller royal et maître de navigation originaire de Ra’iātea, aux Îles Sous-le-Vent de la Société. En collaboration avec divers membres d’équipage de l’Endeavour de James Cook, en deux temps distincts de cartographie et trois ébauches. L’identité de bien des îles qui y figurent et la logique de leur agencement demeuraient jusqu’à présent des énigmes. En se fiant en partie à des pièces d’archives restées ignorées, nous proposons, dans ce long essai, une nouvelle compréhension de sa logique cartographique, une reconstitution détaillée de sa genèse et donc, pour la toute première fois, une lecture exhaustive. La carte de Tupaia n’illustre pas seulement la magnitude et la maîtrise de la navigation polynésienne, elle réalise aussi une remarquable synthèse représentationnelle de deux systèmes d’orientation très différents.
Postcolonial piracy
(2014)
Across the global South, new media technologies have brought about new forms of cultural production, distribution and reception. The spread of cassette recorders in the 1970s; the introduction of analogue and digital video formats in the 80s and 90s; the pervasive availability of recycled computer hardware; the global dissemination of the internet and mobile phones in the new millennium: all these have revolutionised the access of previously marginalised populations to the cultural flows of global modernity.
Yet this access also engenders a pirate occupation of the modern: it ducks and deranges the globalised designs of property, capitalism and personhood set by the North. Positioning itself against Eurocentric critiques by corporate lobbies, libertarian readings or classical Marxist interventions, this volume offers a profound postcolonial revaluation of the social, epistemic and aesthetic workings of piracy. It projects how postcolonial piracy persistently negotiates different trajectories of property and self at the crossroads of the global and the local.
Luhmann in the Contact Zone
(2014)
Luhmann in da Contact Zone
(2016)
Our aim in this contribution is to productively engage with the abstractions and complexities of Luhmann’s conceptions of society from a postcolonial perspective, with a particular focus on the explanatory powers of his sociological systems theory when it leaves the realms of Europe and ventures to describe regions of the global South. In view of its more recent global reception beyond Europe, our aim is to thus – following the lead of Dipesh Chakrabarty – provincialize Luhmann’s system theory especially with regard to its underlying assumptions about a global “world society”. For these purposes, we intend to revisit Luhmann in the post/colonial contact zone: We wish to reread Luhmann in the context of spaces of transcultural encounter where “global designs and local histories” (Mignolo), where inclusion into and exclusion from “world society” (Luhmann) clash and interact in intricate ways. The title of our contribution, ‘Luhmann in da Contact Zone’ is deliberately ambiguous: On the one hand, we of course use ‘Luhmann’ metonymically, as representative of a highly complex theoretical design. We shall cursorily outline this design with a special focus on the notion of a singular, modern “world society”, only to confront it with the epistemic challenges of the contact zone. On the other hand, this critique will also involve the close observation of Niklas Luhman as a human observer (a category which within the logic of systems theory actually does not exist) who increasingly transpires in his late writings on exclusion in the global South. By following this dual strategy, we wish to trace an increasing fracture between one Luhmann and the other, between abstract theoretical design and personalized testimony. It is by exploring and measuring this fracture that we hope to eventually be able to map out the potential of a possibly more productive encounter between systems theory and specific strands of postcolonial theory for a pluritopic reading of global modernity.
Remembering German-Australian Colonial Entanglements emphatically promotes a critical and nuanced understanding of the complex entanglement of German colonial actors and activities within Australian colonial institutions and different imperial ideologies. Case studies ranging from the German reception of James Cook’s voyages through to the legacies of 19th- and 20th-century settler colonialism foreground the highly ambiguous roles played by explorers, missionaries, intellectuals and other individuals, as well as by objects and things that travelled between worlds – ancestral human remains, rare animal skins, songs, and even military tanks. The chapters foreground the complex relationship between science, religion, art and exploitation, displacement and annihilation.
Bridehood revisited
(2008)
Think local sell global
(2010)
Filming illegals
(2013)
Recollecting Bones
(2016)
In the same “guarded, roundabout and reticent way” which Lindsay Barrett invokes for Australian conversations about imperial injustice, Germans, too, must begin to more systematically explore, in Paul Gilroy’s words, “the connections and the differences between anti-semitism and anti-black and other racisms and asses[s] the issues that arise when it can no longer be denied that they interacted over a long time in what might be seen as Fascism’s intellectual, ethical and scientific pre-history” (Gilroy 1996: 26). In the meantime, we need to care for the dead. We need to return them, first, from the status of scientific objects to the status of ancestral human beings, and then progressively, and proactively, as close as possible to the care of those communities from whom they were stolen.
Sound matters
(2016)
This essay proposes a reorientation in postcolonial studies that takes account of the transcultural realities of the viral twenty-first century. This reorientation entails close attention to actual performances, their specific medial embeddedness, and their entanglement in concrete formal or informal material conditions. It suggests that rather than a focus on print and writing favoured by theories in the wake of the linguistic turn, performed lyrics and sounds may be better suited to guide the conceptual work. Accordingly, the essay chooses a classic of early twentieth-century digital music – M.I.A.’s 2003/2005 single “Galang” – as its guiding example. It ultimately leads up to a reflection on what Ravi Sundaram coined as “pirate modernity,” which challenges us to rethink notions of artistic authorship and authority, hegemony and subversion, culture and theory in the postcolonial world of today.
Reflections of Lusáni Cissé
(2016)
Postcolonial Piracy
(2016)
Media piracy is a contested term in the academic as much as the public debate. It is used by the corporate industries as a synonym for the theft of protected media content with disastrous economic consequences. It is celebrated by technophile elites as an expression of freedom that ensures creativity as much as free market competition. Marxist critics and activists promote flapiracy as a subversive practice that undermines the capitalist world system and its structural injustices. Artists and entrepreneurs across the globe curse it as a threat to their existence, while many use pirate infrastructures and networks fundamentally for the production and dissemination of their art. For large sections of the population across the global South, piracy is simply the only means of accessing the medial flows of a progressively globalising planet.
This essay reads Sam Selvon’s novel The Lonely Londoners (1956) as a milestone in the decolonisation of British fiction. After an introduction to Selvon and the core composition of the novel, it discusses the ways in which the narrative takes on issues of race and racism, how it in the tradition of the Trinidadian carnival confronts audiences with sexual profanation and black masculine swagger, and not least how the novel, especially through its elaborate use of creole Englishes, reimagines London as a West Indian metropolis. The essay then turns more systematically to the ways in which Selvon translates Western literary models and their isolated subject positions into collective modes of narrative performance taken from Caribbean orature and the calypsonian tradition. The Lonely Londoners breathes entirely new life into the ossified conventions of the English novel, and imbues it with unforeseen aesthetic, ethical, political and epistemological possibilities.
This article addresses problems of authorship and creative authority in popular music, in particular in view of a pervasive split between modes of aesthetic production (involving modernist assemblage, multiple authorship, and the late capitalist logic of major label policies) and modes of aesthetic reception (which tend to take popular music as the organic output of individual performers). While rock musicians have attempted to come to terms with this phenomenon by either performing a ‘Romantic’ sense of authenticity (basically by importing folk values to the production process) or ‘Modernist authenticity’ (by highlighting experimen- tation and alienation), Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, creators of Gorillaz, found a third way which ingeniously allows them to do both. By creating a virtual rock band, and by hiding their own media personalities behind those of their virtual alter egos, they brought themselves into a position which allows them to produce ‘sincere’ popular music which ‘playfully’ stages the absurdities of major label music business while very successfully operating within its very confines.
This essay revisits Ian McEwan’s extremely successful novel Saturday, and interrogates its exemplary assessment of the British cultural climate after 9/11. The particular focus is on McEwan’s extensive recourse to the writings of Matthew Arnold, whose melancholy outlook on culture and anarchy McEwan basically translates into the 21st century without much ideological fraction. This relapse into Victorian liberal humanism as consolation for a Western world besieged by the contingencies of terrorism is extremely problematic. Not only does it wilfully ignore the transcultural realities of modern Britain, it also promotes an ahistorical and apolitical mode of critical inquiry which may be called reductive at best in view of the global challenges that the novel addresses.