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Rushdie's language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2008

Agnes Scott Langeland
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Abstract

An analysis of how Salman Rushdie destabilizes the Western bias in English

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 16 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

Notes and references

1salman, Rushdie, ‘The Empire Writes Back with a Vengeance’, The Times, 3 07 1982, p.8.Google Scholar
2Alistair, Niven, ‘Shaping the Language to the Landscape’, Times Literary Supplement, 09 14–20, 1990, p.981.Google Scholar
3 In this article I will be referring to the following editions of Rushdie's three novels: Midnight's Children, 1st publ. 1981; Picador edition 1982, Shame, 1st publ.1983; Picador edition 1984; The Satanic Verses, London: Viking 1988.Google Scholar
4Salman, Rushdie, ‘Imaginary Homelands’, London Review of Books, 7–20 10, 1982, pp.18–19 (p.19).Google Scholar
5Braj, B.Kachru, The Alchemy of English: The Spread, Functions and Models of Non-native Englishes, Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English 1986, p.9.Google Scholar
6Chinua, Achebe, ‘The African Writer and the English Language’, in Morning Yet on Creation Day (first published 1975; London: Heinemann, 1982), p.61.Google Scholar
7Ann, Lowry, ‘Style Range in New English Literatures’, in the Other Tongue, ed. Braj, B. Kachru, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press 1992, pp. 283–298 (p.288).Google Scholar
8Peter, Young, ‘Tradition, Language and the Reintegration of Identity in West African Literature in English’, in Edgar, Wright, ed., The Critical Evaluation of African Literature, London: Heinemann 1973, pp. 39–41.Google Scholar
9Tariq, Rahman, ‘Linguistic Deviation as a Stylistic Device in Pakistani English Fiction’, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 1990, Vol. XXV, No.1, pp. 1–11 (p. 9).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Babu or baboo was originally a term of respect attached to a name but came to be a slightly disparaging term applied to clerks employed in English offices during the rule of the British in India, and hence to their form of English. See, Henry Yule and Burnell, A.C., Hobson-Jobson, : A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, 1st published 1886; London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1969, p.44.Google Scholar
11Naik, M. K., Studies in Indian English Literature, New Delhi: Sterling Publishers 1987, pp. 17 & 18.Google Scholar
12Timothy, Brennan, Salman Rushdie and the Third World, Houndsmill, Basingstoke: Macmillan 1989, p. 125.Google Scholar
13Knut, Kristiansen, university lecturer in Hindi and Urdu at the University of Oslo, has confirmed this aspect of these Indian languages.Google Scholar
14 I am indebted to the Norwegian author, Axel Jensen and his wife Pratibha Jensen, for explanations of some of the Indian words and names in The Satanic Verses. In his book Gud leser ikke romaner: en vandring i Salman Rushdies verden, Oslo: Cappelen 1994 (My translation: God Doesn't Read Novels: A Ramble in Salman Rushdie's World), Jensen comments on the significance of the names used by Rushdie in The Satanic Verses. See pp. 38–40, 57, 80, 174 & 213.Google Scholar
15Lars, Erslev Andersen, ‘Romaner i en bastardkultur’, (My translation: ‘Novels in a Mongrel Culture’) Morgenbladet, 18–21 02, 1994, p.8.Google Scholar