Miscelánea: revista de estudios ingleses y norteamericanos (Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana) es una revista bianual que publica artículos académicos y reseñas de l...

This paper explores Bangladeshi English, a relative newcomer to the family of world Englishes. First, we chart the evolution of English in Bangladesh across several phases of development. These show that a number of political and ideological factors make the evolution of English in Bangladesh unique in that it wavers between the status of an exonormative foreign language (English in Bangladesh) and the development of a local variety (Bangladeshi English). From a linguistic perspective, recent studies agree that the current level of proficiency is very low, with a dearth of teachers and an absence of quality education. Second, we examine the degree of nativization of Present-day Bangladeshi English on the basis of (i) its postcolonial evolution and the more recent effects of globalization, following the most popular models of analysis (the Dynamic Model and the Extra- and Intra-Territorial Forces Model), and (ii) linguistic evidence obtained through the analysis of a selection of linguistic features associated with this variety, as represented in the GloWbE corpus.

Storytelling and intertextuality feature frequently in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s literary works. This paper investigates the role intertextuality and storytelling play in his novel Paradise, published in 1994, and shows how they ultimately undermine the very concept of paradise itself. The first section of the paper analyses two intertextual references to Milton which cast doubt on the idea of East Africa as a paradise through their contradictory nature. The second part focuses on the theme of storytelling in the novel at large and more specifically in the main character’s life, demonstrating that both clashes and correspondences between life and storytelling eventually undercut the main character’s idea of paradise.

This article attempts to explore the political possibilities of anger as a potential source of Black female identity construction and solidarity in Zadie Smith’s Swing Time (2016). I will argue that Audre Lorde’s insights into anger in Sister Outsider (1984) are particularly suited to understanding how anger functions in Smith’s fictional work, where this emotion is presented as a powerful “energy” (Lorde 2019: 120) that has the potential to move the subject towards a more empowered selfhood. Nevertheless, I also explore, through the discourses of Lorde (2019) and bell hooks (1995, 2012), the social boundaries and potentially damaging effects attached to this emotion. More specifically, I consider how anger, by itself, is not enough to ensure a stable sense of self because it does not directly motivate the development of female solidarity. Instead, Smith demonstrates how anger may be effectively complemented through the paradigm of care, which does encourage the protagonists to move towards each other, and towards the liberating potential of a more outward view of the world.

This article deals with the psychological affects of guilt and shame in John Boyne’s novel The Heart’s Invisible Furies and with how these influence the way in which the narrator, Cyril Avery, chooses to present his life narrative. Being both the narrator and the main character/focalizer of the events told, the question of his (un)reliability proves extremely relevant for the analysis. The guilt and shame Cyril feels in the first part of the novel —which is also the first part of his life— on account of his being a gay man is forced upon him by the Irish society of the time. Hence, it is only when he leaves his homeland that he can start to find the peace he so much longs for and which, eventually, allows him to tell his story.

Patti Smith and her 2010 National Book Award-winning Just Kids offers an autobiographical account of the artist’s life with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith also shows her involvement in New York City’s bohemian downtown scene in the 1960s and 70s. In 2015, Smith published a second memoir, M Train, and a third one, Year of the Monkey, followed in 2019. These two books are more experimental works where linear chronology is altered. The narrator mixes dream and reality in her recollection of her life after the death of her husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, and pays homage to those beloved persons (writers, artists, family members, friends) who have made an emotional and artistic impact on her. As a significant number of critical articles and book chapters have been devoted to analysing gender issues and narrative strategies of life-writing in Smith’s memoirs, my aim in this essay eschews those topics and explores the search for the artistic self as well as Smith’s ideas of art and performance in Just Kids, M Train and Year of the Monkey.