Keynote speakers
This talk will focus on the case of African literatures to think about the extent to which we can think about the (trans)portability of English as a vehicle of literary language. This talk will explore the ways in which English itself has been exported as a central literary language in the world republic of letters. In so doing, it considers not just the aesthetic parameters of English as it moves, but the structural and infrastructural determinations on how it travels. Taking the case of African literatures, I explore how English has functioned variously as a means of domination; a critical medium for the production of regional and transnational literary networks; a site for creativity, destruction and regeneration. I conclude by briefly speaking about the ways in which translation has further mediated English's movement as a (trans)portable language.
In the course of the late 20th century English developed from one of several competing world languages into the single dominant global language. The resulting unipolar World Language System (de Swaan) is taken for granted in a wide range of communicative domains, from the finance sector to global discourse on climate change and human rights, and we often tend to forget how recent this historically new and unique constellation actually is. In my talk, I will explore two challenges posed by global English in the 21st century:
- The global-language paradox: English is a global language because it serves a multilingual world. In contrast to other world languages, such as Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, non-native users represent the largest group of habitual speakers in the case of English. In a world dominated by English, two groups of people are therefore in danger of being left behind: those who have no access to English, and those who remain monolingual in English.
- The standardisation paradox: Global English is becoming more homogeneous and more heterogeneous at the same time.
By and large current models of World English assume a gradually expanding pluricentric constellation in which two global reference standards (BrE and AmE) are being complemented by more and more emerging national standard varieties. I will argue that this narrative of postcolonial emancipation is in need of revision because it does not account for the boom in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), currently clearly the most important booster in the spread of English, and the increasing presence of selected nonstandard varieties in public discourse. Moreover, both standardisation and de-standardisation are no longer exclusively promoted by human agents, but partly outsourced to technologies and algorithms. On the one hand, language technologies, from simple grammar checkers to Large Language Models, promote further homogenisation and standardisation, usually along American English norms. On the other hand, they also facilitate diversification, giving public visibility to selected nonstandard varieties, especially if they happen to be associated with pop-cultural or subcultural trends. This standardisation paradox will be illustrated by the fact that Standard British English is being superseded by American English online (and to some extent even offline), whereas varieties such as African American English, Jamaican Creole or Nigerian Pidgin seem to be doing comparatively well in cyberspace.
