African Englishes and Creative Writing

Eyamba G. Bokamba

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Research on the structure of African varieties of English (African Englishes, or AfrE) has made dramatic progress since the early 1970s, when it was difficult to find more than two or three article length studies on the topic. This chapter begins the exploration of African Englishes by African creative writers in the hopes of discovering interesting structural characteristics and also rhetorical devices they utilize in creating such Africanized linguistic structures. It represents an expansion of the author’s research on African Englishes that began under Braj Kachru’s mentorship and strong encouragement. The chapter analyzes the creation and transcreation of narratives in the depiction of literary characters to ascertain not only what Kachru terms the “contextual” and “functional appropriateness, " but also the rhetorical devices employed by the authors to portray or invoke certain cultural imageries.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationThe Handbook of World Englishes
PublisherWiley
Pages173-197
Number of pages25
ISBN (Electronic)9781119147282
ISBN (Print)9781119164210
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2020

Keywords

  • African Englishes
  • Africanized linguistic structures
  • Braj kachru
  • Creative writing
  • Cultural imageries
  • Literary characters
  • Rhetorical devices
  • Structural characteristics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities
  • General Social Sciences

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