The Sweet Breath of Words: Language as Nuance in Diaspora Creativity

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of English as a creative literary language used in postcolonial countries such as India or Singapore. The earliest generation of writers was influenced by the British & American tradition, especially by poets like W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, & Ezra Pound. While authors writing during the period of the British Empire (like Raja Rao, K. S. Maniam, or Chinua Achebe) struggled with finding a way to express their own cultural experience in English, more current writers are not faced with this concern. For these writers, English is no longer considered a foreign language. It is argued that the task of modern writers in former British colonies is to create a literature that reflects their own idiolect. L. Davidson.