Is English We Speaking: And Other Essays

by Mervyn Morris

The essays in this book are meant to address a general audience although most of them offer readings, which should be of interests to specialists. Mervyn Morris, himself a writer and critic, deliberately sets out to question the attitudes and judgements of professional critics. xI am often here defending writers against their critics, especially when I believe that inappropriate criteria have been invoked," says Morris in his preface to the collection. The first nine essays are concerned with the interplay between oral and scribal modes, performance and print, Standard English and Creole. Some of the later essays continue to highlight fusion, cultural interchange and creative traffic across borders.

Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This essay collection is a treasure, glorious evidence that to forego jargon and esoteric theory does not mean a sacrifice of intellectual integrity and complexity. Most of these pieces on Caribbean novelists, playwrights, and poets (including himself) originally appeared in a range of academic publications yet all made me feel as if I were in a room with Morris and he spoke to me directly with precision, a sometimes wry critical eye, and palpable sensitivity. Along with familiar writers like Selvon and Brathwaite I learned of others I'd not heard of before like Pauline Melville and others I'd heard of but knew very little about like Mikey Smith. I especially appreciated how he assessed performance in dub poets like Mutabaruka and an all-around entertainer like Paul Keens-Douglas In a single essay, he radically changed how I viewed national attitudes towards Louise Bennett.

I am eternally grateful to Ian Randle Publishers for releasing this work: it is exactly the kind of title of immense value to the Caribbean literary community that foreign publishers might have never published.