Oraliteracy and Textual Opacity: Resisting Metropolitan Consumption of Caribbean Creole

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Oraliteracy and Textual Opacity: Resisting Metropolitan Consumption of Caribbean Creole
Language: English
Authors: Sheller, Mimi
Source: Language and Intercultural Communication. Feb 2004 4(1-2):100-108.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 9
Publication Date: 2004
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Descriptors: Intercultural Communication, Creoles, Literature, Oral Language, Literacy, Ethnic Stereotypes, Translation, Language Attitudes, Foreign Countries, Nonstandard Dialects, Cultural Differences
DOI: 10.1080/14708470408668866
ISSN: 1470-8477
Abstract: The incorporation of "creole" vernacular languages into texts written in "standard" languages is an especially fraught crossroads of intercultural communication. This article considers the difference between a kind of literary tourism in which non-Caribbean readers "taste" the flavour of creole language within Caribbean literature versus an "oraliteracy" that would recognise the full autonomy and complexity of creole languages. Rather than reading textual linguistic hybridity as an unproblematic form of intercultural communication, it is suggested that metropolitan consumption of literary representations of creole vernaculars can serve to naturalise cultural boundaries and reinforce racist stereotypes--especially in postcolonial situations. (Contains 4 notes.)
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 16
Entry Date: 2009
Accession Number: EJ824058
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:The incorporation of "creole" vernacular languages into texts written in "standard" languages is an especially fraught crossroads of intercultural communication. This article considers the difference between a kind of literary tourism in which non-Caribbean readers "taste" the flavour of creole language within Caribbean literature versus an "oraliteracy" that would recognise the full autonomy and complexity of creole languages. Rather than reading textual linguistic hybridity as an unproblematic form of intercultural communication, it is suggested that metropolitan consumption of literary representations of creole vernaculars can serve to naturalise cultural boundaries and reinforce racist stereotypes--especially in postcolonial situations. (Contains 4 notes.)
ISSN:1470-8477
DOI:10.1080/14708470408668866