On African English Variety In African Literature: Its Linguistic Features And Cultural Identity

It is widely acknowledged that English is the international language. Such international status of English breaks the monolithic situation in which British English is the center, and catalyzes many varieties of English with nativized cultural, geopolitical, economic and ethical characteristics, such as American English, Australian English, Singapore English and Indian English. Researchers of World Englishes believe that the wide use of English around the world brings the multiple cultural and linguistic identities into English in the different cross-cultural communicative contexts. Therefore, a repertoire of cultural values, different linguistic conventions and cultural traditions might be transplanted into different World Englishes.Thus, English has a plural form'Englishes'which refers to the collection of different English varieties around the world. The research of'New Englishes'especially arouses strong interests among linguistic academia. Generally speaking, New Englishes refers to Englishes which is used by non-natives as the second language while new English literatures means English literary works created by people who use English as a second language. New English literature equals'contact literature'as Kachru put it in this way from a literary and cultural perspective which is generally found in the ex-colonies governed by English-speaking powers. It is the natural result of the long-term using of English by local peoples.This thesis puts the attention on the mysterious continent of Africa. As an indispensable component of New Englishes, the researches on African variety of English (AVE) have been initiated for a long time. This study of African English is the language variety study in the world context. It mainly discusses the characteristics of African English in terms of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and meaning. Besides, it also analyzes the phenomenon of linguistic and stylistic deviation of AVE in literary creations. More or less, African writers deliberately deviate from standard English and'Africanize'English in order to declare the unique cultural connotation and literary identity of African literature. And how good to use this deviation device is closely related to the educational background of writers. Lastly, the debates upon literary languages in African English literature and writers'attitude toward different languages are also the key discussing points in this thesis. The discussion of African literary language focuses on the following questions: was African literature produced in Africa or about Africa? Must African literature have an African theme and reflect African value? Must it be in indigenous African languages? African writers also have dissimilar attitudes toward African literary language. Writers like Wali and Ngugi oppose to write in English. The writers of this position hold the view that any true African literature must be written in African's own languages. They insist to get rid of English which is the remnant of colonialism and the language of'yesterday's enemy'. On the contrary, writers like Achebe and Soyinka encourage the use of English in literary works, but the'Africanized'English. They think that English is just a medium of literary creation, and they believe that Africanized English will be able to suit its new African surroundings and express African culture and experience perfectly.On the whole, this paper falls into five chapters:Chapter one is the introduction of research background, research objectives, the significance of the study and the organization of the paper after giving a brief view of the current trend of globalization and localization of English. This paper intends to answer three questions: what are the characteristics of AVE? How AVE in literary creations reflects the African nationality and identity? What is the emphasis on African literary language problem?Chapter two first clarifies some sociolinguistic concepts that are related to this study and introduces the researches on English varieties under the world context. Then, the use of English in Africa is introduced. Lastly, this chapter reviews the literature in the study of AVE and its usage in literary writing which lays a solid foundation for the following study.Chapter three and four is the main body of the thesis. Based on the summary of linguistic features of AVE, chapter three gives a linguistic analysis on African English literature to explore the cultural identities in it. Chapter four mainly deals with the longtime debate upon what language to use to create African literature and African writers'attitudes toward different literary mediums.Chapter five is the conclusion of this study with a summary of the content. It also points out limitations of the present study and gives suggestions for further researches.