Contact
Expertise Summary
I joined the UNNC in September 2007 to set up, with other colleagues, the new Division of English. I previously taught for five years at Birmingham City University and three years at the University of Leeds.
My research expertise cuts across three broad areas of English Studies:
*Sociolinguistics, in particular Creole studies, language policy and language planning, World Englishes.
*Shakespeare in translation and adaptation in global contexts.
*World literatures in English.
My first book, From Creole to Standard: Shakespeare, Language and Literature in a Postcolonial Context (Rodopi, 2009), brings together some of these strands.
I am interested in investigating the interface between language and literature and in particular the impact of creative writing on both the forms and prestige accorded to a language. I am also interested in the ways in which Shakespeare gets recycled and branded in the twenty-first century and in postcolonial contexts in particular.
Teaching Summary
My teaching is closely related to my research interests.
At Undergraduate level, I have taught:
Studying Modern Literature, The Influence of English
At MA level, I have taught:
Descriptive Linguistic Analysis, Literary Stylistics, Language and Gender, The Globalization of English, World Literatures in English
I am also currently supervising three PhD projects: on contemporary cosmopolitan literature in English, on English-Chinese news translation, and on parent-child communication in lone-parent families in China.
Research Summary
I have recently submitted an article on linguistic performativity and language planning to the journal World Englishes and a second on a postcolonial rewriting of Othello to the Shakespeare Survey. I… read more
Books
From Creole to Standard: Shakespeare, Language and Literature in a Postcolonial Context (Rodopi, 2009).
Journal articles
'Desdemona's book, lost and found', Shakespeare Survey, Vol 64 (forthcoming, 2011).
'The Shakespearean sonnet in Mauritian: a very particular translinguistic journey', William Shakespeare's Sonnets - For the First Time Globally Reprinted - A Quatercentenary Anthology 1609-2009 ed. by Manfred Pfister and Jürgen Gutsch (Signature, 2010)
The Chinese flanêuse negotiating the metropolis', Entertext 8 (2009), 170-88.
'The contribution of creative writing to the standardization of Mauritian Creole', Language and Literature 16 (2007), 245-61.
'Language Politics in Dev Virahsawmy's Toufann, a Postcolonial Rewriting of The Tempest', Journal of Commonwealth Literature 41.3 (2007), 67-81.
'Prospero's island revisited: Dev Virahsawmy's play Toufann', Kunapipi 21 (1999), 17-21.
'Mauritian theatre in Creole: Redefining linguistic and cultural diglossia', Journal of Francophone Studies 2 (1999), 9-27.
Chapters in books:
'Shakespeare's Postcolonial Journey', Books without Borders, Volume 1: The Cross-national Dimension in Print Culture , ed. by Mary Hammond and Roberts Fraser (Palgrave, 2008), pp. 186-98
'Slavery, language and theatre', in Theatre and Slavery , ed. by Michael Walling (Bordercrossing, 2008), pp. 144-156.
'Negotiating Shakespeare's Hypercanonicity in Creole: Ideological and Practical Considerations', Translating Voices, Translating Regions, ed. by Nigel Armstrong and Federico Federici (Rome: Aracne, 2006), pp. 323-41.
'Mauritius and La Réunion', A History of Theatre in Africa, ed. by Martin Banham (Cambridge: CUP, 2004), pp. 405-29.
'Shakespeare and Africa' co-written with Martin Banham and Jane Plastow, in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage, ed. by Sarah Stanton and Stanley Wells (Cambridge: CUP, 2002), pp. 284-99.
'Mauritian theatre: language, discourse and identity', in Francophone Studies: Discourse and Identity, ed. by Kamal Salhi (Exeter: Elm Bank Publications, 2000), pp. 189-211.
'Theatre in development in Mauritius: from a theatre of protest to a theatre of cultural miscegenation', African Theatre in Development, ed. by Martin Banham, James Gibbs, Femi Osofisan (Oxford: James Currey, 1999), 24-37.
Recent papers presented at Conferences
'Desdemona's book, lost and found: cosmopolitanism and branding in Prezidan Otelo', Shakespeare as a Cultural Catalyst Conference, Thirty-fourth International Shakespeare Conference, Shakespeare Institute, UK, August 2010.
'Linguistic and Cultural Resistance in Creole Literature, a Form of Political Activism', Creoles, Diasporas, Cosmopolitanism, American Comparative Literature Association Conference, USA, April 2010.
'Language and Gender Politics in Contemporary Chinese Literature', Language and Culture: Creating and Fostering Global Communities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, May 2009
'The Chinese flanêuse negotiating the metropolis', Literary London Conference, University of Brunel, UK, June 2008
'Refiguring English Studies in China', Renewals: Refiguring University English in the 21st Century Conference, English Subject Centre Conference, Royal Holloway, London, July 2007.
'Reading and Publishing Shakespeare in Postcolonial Times', The Colonial and Postcolonial Lives of the Book: Reaching the Margins Conference, Institute of English Studies, London, November 2005.
'Negotiating Shakespeare's Hypercanonicity in Creole: Ideological and Practical Considerations', Translating Voices, Translating Regions Conference, University of Rome, Rieti, July 2005.
'History in the making: the standardisation of Mauritian Creole', at the First International Conference on English Historical Dialectology, University of Bergamo, Milan, September 2003.