Resisting (in) English, Changing English 30.3 Call for Contributions

Abstract

‘My quarrel with the English language has been that the language reflected none of my experience. But now I began to see the matter another way . . . Perhaps the language was not my own because I had never attempted to use it, had only learned to imitate it. If this were so, then it might be made to bear the burden of my experience if I could find the stamina to challenge it, and me, to such a test.’ (James Baldwin, in Mair 2003)