Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows

199 Pages·2007·76.987 MB·English

by  Alastair Pennycook

Global Englishes and Transcultural Flo~
• 'Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows is remarkable for the depth of its
insight and the breadth of its scholarship. Drawing on theories of performa
tivity and transculturation, Alastair Pennycook brings a fresh perspective to
debates on the relationship between local and global cultural practices. His
outstanding analysis of international hip-hop culture, in particular, offers
a window on a wide range of contemporary topics, including globaliza
tion, world Englishes, identity, popular culture, and linguistic imperialism.
Written with eloquence and style, the book is a "must read" for applied lin
guists, language educators, and cultural studies enthusiasts.'
Bonny Norton, University of British Colombia, Canada
'An exciting, thought-provoking and entertaining study of the transnational
flows of Hip-Hop, and their implications for applied linguistics research and
practices, combining up-to-date theoretical debates with a wealth of origi
nal data and detailed text analysis. Written with refreshing clarity and flair,
the book makes an innovative contribution not only for scholars of transna
tionalism in the interface of linguistics and cultural studies, but provides an
accessible textbook for students and interested readers.'
Ulrike Meinhof, University of Southampton, UK
The English language is spreading across the world, and so too is hip-hop
culture: both are being altered, developed, reinterpreted, reclaimed.
This timely book breaks new ground in exploring the relations between
global Englishes (the spread and use of diverse forms of English within proc
esses of globalization), and transcultural flows (the movements, changes and
reuses of cultural forms in disparate contexts). Drawing on transgressive
and performative theory, Pennycook looks at how hip-hop, global Englishes,
transcultural flows and pedagogy are interconnected in ways that oblige us
to rethink language and culture within the contemporary world.
With the language of hip-hop and English woven together in new and
creative ways, Alastair Pennycook argues that the use of English becomes
not merely imitative, but part of a localized subculture in many parts of the
world: hip-hop operates as a global code, while simultaneously demonstrat
ing and creating a sense of locality.
This wide-ranging and informative discussion of English and hi~
includes discussions from many contexts, from Australia to Japan anCI from
Malaysia to Senegal, and focuses on the ways English is embedded in other
linguistic contexts, including those of East Asia, Australia, West Africa and
the Pacific Islands.
Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows will be a valuable resource to
applied linguists, sociolinguists, and students on cultural studies, English
language studies, TEFL and TESOL courses.
Alastair Pennycook is Professor of Language in Education at the University of
Technology, Sydney. His previous publications include The Cultural Politics
•
of English as an International Language (1994 ), English and the Discourses
of Colonialism (Routledge, 1998) and Critical Applied Linguistiscs: A criti
cal introduction (2001).

Global Englishes and
Transcultural Flows
•
Alastair Pennycook
~ ~~~;~r:n~s~~up
~ ANDNEWYORK
•
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2007 Alastair Pennycook
Typeset in Sabon by Saxon Graphics Ltd
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd,
Chippenham, Wiltshire
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Pennycook, Alastair, 1957-
Global Englishes and transcultural flows I Alastair Pennycook.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. English language - Slang. 2. Hip-hop - Influence. 3.
Communication, International. 4. Intercultural communication. I.
Title.
PE3 71 l.P46 2006
42T.09-dc22
2006018389
ISBN10: 0-415-37480-4 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-37497-9 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-08880-8 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-37480-4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-37497-2 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-08880-7 (ebk)
I
I
Contents
I
\
Prefa ce and acknowledgements
a Vll
1 Hip hop be connectin' 1
2 Other Englishes 17
3 Transgressive theories 36
4 Performance and performativity 58
5 Taking the vernacular voices of the popular seriously 78
6 English and the global spread of authenticity 96
7 Language flows, language mixes 116
8 Hip-hop pedagogies and local knowledge 140
Notes 159
Bibliography 163
Index 183
Preface and acknowledgements
• A few years ago, a seminar on global hip-hop in the Faculty of Humanities
and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney caught my atten
tion. I knew virtually nothing of hip-hop but the theme of globalization and
localization intrigued me. As I listened to the talk by Tony Mitchell, I was
struck by a range of issues. First, this topic in itself was fascinating: the ways
in which hip-hop becomes a local cultural practice around the world opens
up many questions of ownership, culture and change; second, the debate
within cultural studies on these matters had, in a sense, already dealt with
and moved on from many of the concerns we were still dealing with in lan
guage studies; and third, the connections between the global spread of lan
guage (particularly English) and the global spread of cultural forms was in
desperate need of further investigation. And so this project was born. It has
been a fascinating journey, taking me into a realm of music, graffiti, dance
and sound that I had never paid much attention to, and giving me the great
privilege of talking to hip-hop artists and researchers from many parts of the
world. This has opened my eyes to many new ideas, people, sounds, move
ments and ways of being, and I am deeply grateful to all those who have
helped with this.
First of all, then, my thanks to Tony Mitchell, author of Global Noise
1.\1itchell, 2001), for getting me into all this, for being such a generous
and thoughtful colleague, and more recently an inspiring co-researcher on
our joint project Local Noise: Indigenising Hip-hop in Australasia. The
_-\ustralian Research Council (ARC) should also be duly thanked for fund
ing both this project and my own Postoccidental Englishes and Rap, which
forms the basis for much of this book. I owe a great deal of thanks to the
many artists I have talked to, many of whom, such as Too Phat, Teh Tarik
Crew, Daara J and K'Naan, found time backstage during a busy schedule to
field my endless series of questions. And thanks to other artists and record
labels, such as DJ Jun and Positive Tone, who gave me great access to mate
rials and artists. Much of what I have come to understand in recent years
bas also been through working collaboratively with a number of research
assistants (who have also, of course, been responsible for the hard back
ground work: translations, transcriptions, interviews, readings and so on):
_-\dam LeNevez, Jason Seeto, Celina McEwen, Astrid Lorange, Nick Keys,
Emi Otsuji, Young Hee Park, Tomoko Takasaki and Go Eun Kim.
vm Preface and acknowledgements
These projects have also introduced me to a new and exciting group of
researchers following similar trajectories around language, culture, hip-hop
and education, with whom more collaborations are planned. It has been an
inspiration and a pleasure to talk, work, write and collaborate with: Samy
Alim, Awad Ibrahim, Mela Sarkar, Michael Newman, Elaine Richardson,
Tope Omoniyi, Rinaldo Walcott, Brownen Low, Jannis Androutsopoulos
and others. The work being done by this group of scholars and some of their
collaborators is some of the most exciting to emerge in applied linguistics
for a long time. I am also grateful to all those who have taken an interest
in my research and sent me a CD, a newspaper clip, a connection, an idea,
and even on occasions, as happened to Lee Su Kim and Dominique Estival,
•
found themselves unexpectedly backstage and helping out with an inter
view. It has also been my great fortune over the past few years to work with
an exciting and intellectually stimulating group of doctoral students who
have pushed my thinking in many different directions. In particular, I would
like to thank Constance Ellwood, Adam LeNevez, Emi Otsuji, Ros Appleby,
Anita Devos, Ross Forman, Sisamone Sithirajvongsa, Janis Brodie-Grant,
Young Hee Park, Celia Thompson, Rana Chandrasoma, Maria Harissi and
Marianne Grey for the intellectual struggles and pleasures we have had over
the past few years.
I have had the chance to try out some of my ideas in print prior to the pub
lication of this book, and I would like to thank Lawrence Erlbaum for per
mission to publish revised versions of: Pennycook, A. (2004b) Performativity
and language studies. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: An International
Journal, 1(1), 1-19, and Pennycook, A. (in press) Language, localiza
tion and the real: hip-hop and the global spread of authenticity. Journal
of Language, Identity, and Education, 6(2); to Blackwell for Pennycook,
A. (2003a) Global Englishes, Rip Slyme and performativity. journal of
Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 513-533; and Taylor & Francis for Pennycook, A.
(2005) Teaching with the flow: fixity and fluidity in education. Asia Pacific
Journal of Education, 25(1), 29-43.
Meanwhile, I remain incredibly fortunate to be able to continue the long
term critical applied linguistic conversations (about language, life, death,
politics, culture, change, identity, gender, sexuality, learning, teaching,
words, landscapes and more) with my many friends and colleagues who con
stantly inspire, criticize and encourage my ideas. I am so grateful for all the
wonderful conversations. Many thanks to Elana Shohamy, Tim McNamara,
Bonny Norton, Brian Morgan, Vaidehi Ramanathan, Ryuko Kubota, Sinfree
Makoni, Angel Lin, Claire Kramsch, Lee Su Kim, Suresh Canagarajah,
Stephen May, Cynthia Nelson, Alison Lee, Allan Luke, Lynn Mario Menezes
de Souza, Luiz Paulo Moita Lopes, and many others. Apologies to those I
have left out. And finally my thanks, comme toujours, to Dominique Estival,
who has listened to music she never expected to have to, heard arguments
that made little sense, tolerated the moods, the work, the textual struggles,
and always supported me in my new lunacies. Merci, encore.
1 Hip hop be connectin'
In the atmosphere: the wilder shores of English
December 2003. The Atmosphere nightclub in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Joe Flizzow and Malique' - Too Phat - come on stage; their gait has a loose
rhythm, a languid movement of the body, a hinging of the knees that feels
like a walk from elsewhere. Their hands wave in the air, fingers pointing,
gesticulating with the urgent rhythm of the music. Their matching clothes
hang loosely from their bodies: white trainers, baggy jeans, shirts hanging
out (one a black T-shirt, the other an orange basketball shirt). Both wear
baseball caps set off at a slight angle to the side. Against the background
beat from large speakers at the side of the stage they rap at speed, micro
phones held up in front of them. Behind them, a break-dancing crew, also
in baggy jeans, caps and T-shirts, do back spins, windmills, head spins. Joe
Flizzow at the mic:
Hip hop be connectin' Kuala Lumpur with LB
Hip hop be rockin' up towns laced wit' LV
Ain't necessary to roll in ice rimmed M3's and be blingin'
Hip hop be bringin' together emcees2
How do we understand this English rap in a Malaysian night-club, with its
African American influences on pronunciation and syntax (Hip hop be con
nectin') its references to the world of hip-hop (blingin', bringin' together
emcees) and current popular culture (Louis Vuitton clothes, BMW 3 series
wheel rims)? Is this just a flow of culture from the centre to the periphery?
Is the whole world becoming a stage for American culture? Does this sug
gest the gradual death of the rich heritage of Malaysian song and dance as
American culture sweeps across the region, led by MTV, music channels,
iPods, clothing fashions? Is this the ultimate triumph of global marketing, of
the spread of American culture to take over the world, rendering traditional
local cultural forms as nothing but a fetishist interest of cultural national
ists and anthropologists? And is the global spread of English the vanguard
of the army of Western cultural imperialism, the Trojan Horse from which
squadrons of cultural demons spread during the night? Or is it the other way