Some reflections on why English is necessary but not enough.On 11 May 2001, as part of the EU-Japan Friendship Week, and on the occasion of the European Year of Languages, a one-day symposium on ‘The Future of Linguistic Diversity’ was held at the Japan Foundation in Tokyo: see ET67, Jul 01. In his contribution to this symposium, Professor Reinier Salverda of University College London (as the representative of the Netherlands) discussed how it may be possible to work towards successful international communication in a world that is nonetheless marked by great diversity of language. The following adapted and extended version of his EYL presentation discusses both multilingualism today and the view that English, while necessary in global terms, is hardly enough.
A description and discussion of the vast linguistic diversity in the capital of the United Kingdom.LONDON today is an enormous Tower of Babel, where in addition to the common language, English, many other languages are spoken. On Tuesday 13 March 2001, as part of the Lunch Hour Lecture Series at University College London, Professor Reinier Salverda discussed the linguistic diversity of contemporary London, presenting recent data on the other languages spoken there, as well as focussing on the social aspects of this linguistic diversity, in particular issues of language policy and language management. The following is a slightly adapted version of that presentation.
I discuss the Dutch maritime and colonial empire in South East Asia (1600–1950) and its literature. Focusing in particular on its absence from most postcolonial debate today, my aim here is to explore why and how this missing Dutch empire and its literature matter to postcolonial theory. I will consider a range of recent reactions to the 19th-century Dutch author Multatuli and his classic novel Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (1860). The Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, for example, has expressed the view that it was this novel that ‘put an end to colonialism”. I will also try and assess the continuing relevance of Multatuli's Max Havelaar, considering in particular the issues of justice and humanity raised by this novel about the human cost of coffee production.
It is almost commonplace to say that London today is ‘the multilingual capital of the world’ (The Independent, 29 March 1999), the ‘most ethnically diverse city’ (Evening Standard, 2 December 2003), perhaps even ‘the most cosmopolitan city in the world’ (The Guardian, 21 January 2005). What interests me here, and what I want to explore in this essay, is how this multilingual and multicultural character of contemporary London affects the domain of literature. What literatures are being produced here today, and in what languages? What can we say about the character of these literatures, their genres, forms of expression and representations? And what about the themes and concerns that shape and define them?
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