Involuntary Associations

Abstract

Postcolonialism across the Disciplines showcases alternative directions for postcolonial studies. It is in part an attempt to counteract the dominance in colonial and postcolonial studies of one particular discipline -English literary/ cultural studies -and to make the case for a combination of disciplinary knowledges as the basis for contemporary postcolonial critique. Edited by leading scholars, the series aims to be a seminal contribution to the field, spanning the traditional range of disciplines represented in postcolonial studies but also those less acknowledged. It will also embrace new critical paradigms and examine the relationship between the transnational/cultural, the global and the postcolonial. Involuntary Associations Postcolonial Studies andWorld Englishes David HuddartLiverpool University Press The right of David Huddart to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication dataA British Library CIP record is available ISBN 978-1-78138-025-3 cased Involuntary AssociationsTypeset in Amerigo by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster Printed and bound by BooksFactory.co.uk I do not underestimate the personal vision in the teeth of a mass-media world. It is through such deeply intuitive insights drawn from hard work and concentration that one may reflect in new ways upon areas of history that are replete with ironies of involuntary association between cultures. Such ironies highlight an addiction to invariance, closed minds, and divided cultures, even as they disclose, I think, the mystery of cross-cultural wholeness steeped in the freedom of diversity to cross boundaries that restrict our vision of therapeutic and evolving reality.Wilson Harris, Selected Essays vii F irst, thanks to my students and teaching assistants from over eight years of teaching World Englishes. In particular, thanks to Tara Coleman and Chris Tsang, who helped recast its teaching in essential ways. Meanwhile, the final stages of this book would have been more problematic without the assistance of Emily Chow and Franziscka Cheng. I would also like to thank all my colleagues in Hong Kong for their hard work and challenging conversation. Extra thanks for a random selection of things to Peter Skehan, Julian Lamb, Eddie Tay, Michael O'Sullivan, Grant Hamilton, and Simon Haines. Beyond the Hong Kong context, I would like to thank David Ewick, who a long time ago prompted me to begin thinking about some of the issues addressed in this book in the Japanese context. In addition, thanks to Robert Phillipson for detailed and trenchant comments about the manuscript. Finally, I would like to acknowledge that the work recorded in this book was supported by a grant from the H...