Linguistic purity seems to be a question among the French, who get
all exercised about the infection of English (esp American English).
And surely they count as Europeans? And if the Scots and Irish and
Welsh (and too the Cornish, who keep falling off the map because they
are small and unimportant) are looking for "cultural, linguistic and
political autonomy", isn't there a danger that they too are demanding
"linguistic purity and integrity"?
One of the principle tensions within the EEC is the fear within
individual nations and regions of losing their linguistic and
cultural autonomy and identity in the notion of a generalised
"European". It accounts I think for some of the far-right stuff
that's been happening lately, among other things.
There are no "qualifications" for joining poetryetc, so there will be
varying degrees of knowledge among its members. This seems to me
fine; just as your very individual English is fine.
Best
Alison
At 7:37 PM +0100 28/5/02, Erminia Passannanti wrote:
>If this list will keep suffering such an unbalance of information among
>members - if most of the ongoing threads keep amounting to a vagueness of
>ideas and a knowledge of poetics and literary theory, people might no
>longer be interested in participating.
>
>I thought the present themes we are discussing of postcolonial policies
>were by now an established notion, especially among the English writers
>with a due awareness of the Irish, Welsh, Scottish quest for cultural,
>linguistic and political autonomy.
>
>An European intellectual would not expect to still find this kind of
>recrimination about language purity and integrity. All these questions are
>a worry.
--
"The only real revolt is the revolt against war."
Albert Camus
Alison Croggon
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http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
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