Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 07:50:51 -0400 ()
Subject: Re: Language and colonialism


Dr. Gupta's work seems fascinating and of enormous use to us all but this
indigenous language/English split is difficult to see as a binary. Just to
offer a few other possibilities: class, caste, education, ethnicity,
profession, gender, age. With a bit of help from a translator I have
been able to have reasonable conversations with people who don't speak
English or French but I don't get too far when there are vast differences
in educational level or "world experience."
This is not to deny the epistemological gap signified by language. As
others have noted, Ngugi makes this point well. Many binaries, such as
English/indigenous, modern/traditional and of course colonizer/colonized
are of great value, are probably absolutely necessary, in political action
but break down very quickly in serious analysis. This is one of the
reasons I am uncomfortable with "third space" arguments: I'm not too
convinced about the first two.
Lest some might think my own postings on Canada and "Labour Day"
contradict me here, they rather make my point. I was asserting what I see
as an important political fact, which I don't want to erase. On the other
hand, if you wish me to make a serious analysis of the difference between
Americans and Canadians it would take a lot of bandwidth and a type of
subtle argument which tends to make binary assumptions seem somewhat
fuzzy. (a similar case could be made for the contrast between a proper
analysis of gender differences in political leadership and simply posting
"Margaret Thatcher.") 
t

Terry Goldie
English Department
York University
North York, Ontario
Canada
M3J 1P3
voice: 416-604-3670
fax: 416-736-5412
email: tgoldie-AT-yorku.ca




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