TOPIC 62: THE COMMONWEALTH. CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC VARIETIES. INTERCULTURAL INFLUENCES AND MANIFESTATIONS.
(Part 1)
FORMATION AND HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH
1776 —> beginnings of a British Empire.
- The colonies were controlled by governors appointed by the British government.
1783 —> North America got rid of the British government’s control and established the Constitution of the US.
TRANSPLANTED SOCIETIES (Ex-settler colonies)
1867 —> the British empire associates with Canada (a fully self-governing country) —> full power was transferred to the representative institutions of
Canada
people mostly descendent from British emigrants.
Australia
Australia and New Zealand followed
New Zealand
The majority of the population is of European origins and has had to adapt or transform
1926 —> Imperial Conference held in London considered the nationalists aspirations of the British dominions and territories.
Old World cultural habits
The Balfour Report —> recognised that the Great Britain and the dominions were autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in
status, in no way subordinated one to another in any aspect of the external or domestic affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the crown and
Indigenous population was victim of brutalization and discrimination (Amerindians in
freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
Canada, Aborigines in Australia, and Maoris in New Zealand)
CULTURAL MODELS
1947 .—> India and Pakistan become independent and the New Commonwealth begin.
IN THE DISRUPTED SOCIETIES (ex-invaded colonies)
Within twenty years the major colonial territories had become independent (transfer of powers to elected ministries and guarantees of protection for
COMMONWEALTH Ancestral cultures of Africa
minorities)
Indian subcontinent
D.E.S. Maxwell offers a Before the arrival of the colonisers, these lands were often densely populated. So, no mass
There have been hostilities between countries in the Commonwealth —> India and Pakistan (1971)
classification and differentiates immigration from Europe take place in these countries.
between:
Pakistan was the second country to leave the Commonwealth, the first was South Africa.
During the colonialism there was a disruption of age-old traditions but in the post-
independent era, it urged to reconstruct their culture.
THE COMMONWEALTH TODAY MIXED MODEL
The Caribbean
It has a secretariat, and every year there is a meeting of heads of government, no longer away in London, but circulating among the different countries. The most important population group, the descendant of the slaves brought from West
These meetings are often problematical, specially for those 3rd World member states. Africa, had their culture destroyed in the New World.
The English culture, imposed through the colonial system has been dominant until
The Queen is the head of the Commonwealth, she is recognised as Head of the State in Eighteen countries, including Canada and Australia. recently. Now it’s being replaced by local folk forms.
The members of the royal family make their visits to member states, and do much to keep alive the symbolic links.
In Sport —> cricket and four-yearly Commonwealth Games.
HONG KONG: In 1997 Britain negotiates with China a Joint Declaration where it was agreed that Hong Kong would become a Special Administrative
Region of the People’s Republic of China, but its social and economic system would remain unchanged for 50 years.
GIBRALTAR: it is geographically a part of Spain, but people voted in favour of continuing the British connection. There is free movement across the
border
THE FALKLAND ISLANDS: its status arouse serious difficulties in the 1980’s. In 1982 a British military force defeated and expelled an Argentinean
army which had invaded the islands.
TOPIC 62: THE COMMONWEALTH. CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC VARIETIES. INTERCULTURAL INFLUENCES AND MANIFESTATIONS. (Part 1)
INDIA
CANADA Home of one of the world’s oldest and most influential civilisations. CUL. DIV. : It is more a subcontinent than a country.
Around the year 1600 —> East India Company controlled many aspects in India. - It has regional diversities reflected in its myriad races, languages and religions, art
Until 1760 most settlers came from France, then the pattern was altered and UK immigrants and culture.
arrived either by the US or Europe . LING. DEV. : In the 19th c. A flood of English-Speaking administrators, army officers, - Castes continue —> strong divisive influences
educators and missionaries scattered English throughout the sub-continent. By the end of - Untouchability and linguistic chovinism operates
[Link]. : English in Canada is homogenous. It is difficult to distinguish from other the century, it had become the prestige language of India. - 80% of the population are Hindus —> unifying factro
North American varieties. Differences mainly of vocabulary and pronunciation, but not about a - Indian words were added to English vocab.
THE CARIBBEAN
distinctive Canadian grammar. - Apart from other distinctive stylistic features
The arrival of the first whites and thousand of black slaves caused an extraordinary transformation
Canadian idioms —> use of ‘eh?’ At the end of the sentences Now, there are more speakers of English in India than in Britain.
of the region linguistic and cultural geography —> the making of Caribbean Creole
Speakers of English belong to the educated ruling elite.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY: 40% British, 27% French, 33% of population has other language - A ‘complete language’ —> contains colloquialisms of Calcutta and London,
LING. DEV. : Native languages were obliterated and creolized formes of the invading European
origin. Shakespeare’s archaisms, bazaar whinings and the jargon of Indian litigation.
languages emerged.
Canadian culture has been colonised by American culture, as can be seen in mass media.
- Barbados (‘little England’) was settletd in the 1620’s —> Bajan Creole is closer to standard
French-speakers, mainly in Quebec, have a separatist movement sustained as much by
English than Jamaican Creole
opposition to American culture as by affiliation to France.
- Jamaica uses two basic levels: Jamaican Creole (language of streets and home) and
Canada is not a melting pot of cultures but a facsimile of its European parents
Standard English used in newspapers and news
LITERATURE: it remains monolithic
CUL. DIV. : The Caribbean is fragmented, each island has its own strong loyalties and traditions.
- Trinidad: heavily influenced by Spanish, French, creole and Indian traditions
AFRICA - Jamaica, Antigua and Barbados: are the most English of the islands
Its colonization in a systematic way was in the second half of the 19th c. (Most before WWI). Population is predominantly African and afro-European in origin. They share a common culture the
Its historical legacy is formed of a variety of influences. result of somewhat parallel experiences.
- Jamaica has a lively independent culture.
LING. DEV. : ‘PIDGIN’ —> is an auxiliary language, one that has no native speakers. It provides a
means of communication between people who have no common language.
AUSTRALIA
English is different in East and West Africa:
- East: this region had no contact with England until the beginning of the 20th c. Its colonization 1788: 11 ships anchored in Australia from which 3/4 were convict
only lasted a few decades and it resulted in a very limited use of English (admon and army) 1810-1865 about a million people left the British Isles
NEW ZAELAND
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania use Swahili as lingua franca, while English is the main language of 1945-1974 there was a mass European-wide immigration (Britain, Italy) —> Melbourne and Sidney
secondary and tertiary education European settlements began in the late 18th c, although it was not formally settled until the middle became polyglot communities.
of the 19th c. It was a free colony, self-determining since 1901. US and Japan became trade partners.
- West: result of the slave experience of the 16th and 17th c. Pidgin English is the major language
of inter-state communication. LING. DEV. : many believe they speak better English than most Australians. It has been LING. DEV. : Australian English starts in the second half of the 18th c. Pidgin English was appearing
Sierra Leone use KRIO: this language is a mixture of English and Yoruba, with some Portuguese overshadowed by his larger, reacher, and more populous neighbour. between settlers and Aborigine.
elements. It has flourished everywhere. It was brought by traders and missionaries to Nigerian and - Influenced by The Scots —> family names and place names - Aboriginal vocabulary has now become trademarks of Australian English (billabong—> waterhole).
Cameroon. It is very similar to other W African pidgins. It is being tried to be established as the - Influenced by native Maori culture —> local trees, flowers, and animals However Aboriginal vocabulary is small and confined to plants, trees, animals, and in a greater extent
national language of Sierra Leone, as it may be considered a language in its own right, and not a - Influence of Australia place-names —> now it has almost died out
version of English. - Its distinct vocabulary —> ‘roads’ are called ‘lines’ - Australian English is famous for its air of novelty. It borrows freely from British and American
English. The most remarkable feature is its comparative uniformity —> almost no regional variations
CUL. DIV. : the majority of the population is indigenous. Some (Zimbaue, Zambia, Kenya) have CUL. DIV. : society that is egalitarian in the extreme, with a strong tendency towards conformity to
significant European populations. an imaginary national form, with little tolerance for the eccentric. CUL. DIV. : Australia is a word of contrast which culture has followed the British model —> his traditions
- Tribes are the basic units of these societies —> at least 1,000 distinct languages - Its attachment to Britain is unheard of in Australia —> tune into BBC broadcasts evokes life in Britain while cities remind us of the US.
- After mid-20th c mining centres and new distribution centres —> attracted many - Maori people are determined to make their contribution —> offered in may secondary Now, no Aborigines exists. Although in recent years it is being tried to draw them closer into its society as
different cultures. schools as an optional second language a way of erasing unfavourable forms of discrimination.
LITERATURE: until 1950s did not emerged genuine literature in English. However, writing in LITERATURE: several writers and artists generally concerned wit personal analysis and LITERATURE: its own characteristic themes and style (ex. Descriptive poetry). Interesting variety in
English by Africans goes back to the 18th c. introspection. Janet Frame is known worldwide. Australian cinema.
TOPIC 62: COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE (Parte 2)
E.M FORSTER DORIS LESSING NADINE GORDIMER
• E.M. Forster, in full Edward Morgan Forster, (born January 1, 1879, London, England—died • Doris Lessing, in full Doris May Lessing, original name Doris May Tayler, (born October • Nadine Gordimer, (born November 20, 1923, Springs, Transvaal [now in Gauteng], South
June 7, 1970, Coventry, Warwickshire), British novelist, essayist, and social and literary critic. 22, 1919, Kermānshāh, Persia [now Iran]—died November 17, 2013, London, England), Africa—died July 13, 2014, Johannesburg), South African novelist and short-story writer whose
His fame rests largely on his novels Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924) and on British writer whose novels and short stories are largely concerned with people involved in major theme was exile and alienation. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.
a large body of criticism. the social and political upheavals of the 20th century. She was awarded the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 2007. • Gordimer’s first book was Face to Face (1949), a collection of short stories. In 1953 a novel,
• His first novels and short stories were redolent of an age that was shaking off the shackles of • Her family was living in Persia at the time of her birth but moved to a farm in Southern The Lying Days, was published. Both exhibit the clear, controlled, and unsentimental style that
Victorianism. While adopting certain themes (the importance of women in their own right, for Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she lived from age five until she settled in England in became her hallmark. Her stories concern the devastating effects of apartheid on the lives of
example) from earlier English novelists such as George Meredith, he broke with the elaborations 1949. In her early adult years she was an active communist. In Pursuit of the English South Africans—the constant tension between personal isolation and the commitment to social
and intricacies favoured in the late 19th century and wrote in a freer, more colloquial style. From (1960) tells of her initial months in England, and Going Home (1957) describes her justice, the numbness caused by the unwillingness to accept apartheid, the inability to change it,
the first his novels included a strong strain of social comment, based on acute observation of reaction to Rhodesia on a return visit. In 1994 she published the first volume of an and the refusal of exile.
middle-class life. autobiography, Under My Skin; a second volume, Walking in the Shade, appeared in 1997.
• In 1974 Gordimer’s novel The Conservationist (1974) was a joint winner of the Booker Prize.
There was also a deeper concern, however, a belief, associated with Forster’s interest in Her first published book, The Grass Is Singing (1950), is about a white farmer and his wife Later novels included Burger’s Daughter (1979), July’s People (1981), A Sport of Nature (1987),
Mediterranean “paganism,” that, if men and women were to achieve a satisfactory life, they and their African servant in Rhodesia. Among her most substantial works is the series My Son’s Story (1990), The House Gun (1998), and The Pickup (2001). Gordimer addressed
needed to keep contact with the earth and to cultivate their imaginations. In an early novel, The Children of Violence (1952–69), a five-novel sequence that centres on Martha Quest, who environmental issues in Get a Life (2005), the story of a South African ecologist who, after
Longest Journey (1907), he suggested that cultivation of either in isolation is not enough, reliance grows up in southern Africa and settles in England. The Golden Notebook (1962), in which receiving thyroid treatment, becomes radioactive and hence dangerous to others.
on the earth alone leading to a genial brutishness and exaggerated development of imagination a woman writer Her final novel, No Time like the Present (2012), follows veterans of the battle against apartheid
undermining the individual’s sense of reality. attempts to come to terms with the life of her times through her art, is one of the most as they deal with the issues facing modern South Africa.
complex and the most widely read of her novels. The Memoirs of a Survivor (1975) is a
• The same theme runs through Howards End, a more ambitious novel that brought Forster his prophetic fantasy that explores psychological and social breakdown. A master of the short • Gordimer wrote a number of short-story collections, including A Soldier’s Embrace (1980),
first major success. The novel is conceived in terms of an alliance between the Schlegel sisters, story, Lessing has published several collections, including The Story of a Non-Marrying Crimes of Conscience (1991), and Loot, and Other Stories (2003). Living in Hope and History:
Margaret and Helen, who embody the liberal imagination at its best, and Ruth Wilcox, the owner Man (1972) and Stories (1978); her African stories are collected in This Was the Old Notes from Our Century (1999) is a collection of essays, correspondence, and reminiscences.
of the house Howards End, which has remained close to the earth for generations. Chief’s Country (1951) and The Sun Between Their Feet (1973)
• The values of truthfulness and kindness dominate Forster’s later thinking. A reconciliation of Lessing turned to science fiction in a five-novel sequence titled Canopus in Argos: Archives
humanity to the earth and its own imagination may be the ultimate ideal, but Forster sees it (1979–83). The novels The Diary of a Good Neighbour (1983) and If the Old Could...
receding in a civilization devoting itself more and more to technological progress. (1984) were published pseudonymously under the name Jane Somers to dramatize the
problems of unknown writers.
• Although the later Forster is an important figure in mid-20th-century culture, his emphasis on a Subsequent novels include The Good Terrorist (1985), about a group of revolutionaries in
kindly, uncommitted, and understated morality being congenial to many of his contemporaries, it is London, and The Fifth Child (1988), a horror story, to which Ben, in the World (2000) is
by his novels that he is more likely to be remembered, and these are best seen in the context of the a sequel. The Sweetest Dream (2001) is a semiautobiographical novel set primarily in
preceding Romantic Tradition. London during the 1960s, while the parable-like novel The Cleft (2007) considers the
origins of human society. Her collection of essays Time Bites (2004) displays her wide-
• In addition to essays, short stories, and novels, Forster wrote a biography of his great-aunt, ranging interests, from women’s issues and politics to Sufism. Alfred and Emily (2008) is
Marianne Thornton (1956); a documentary account of his Indian experiences, The Hill of Devi a mix of fiction and memoir centred on her parents.
(1953); and Alexandria: A History and a Guide (1922; new ed., 1961). Maurice, a novel with a
homosexual theme, was published posthumously in 1971 but written many years earlier.
