One Language, Many Voices : An Anthology of Short Stories about the Legacy of Empire

by Helga Korff (Editor), Angela Ringel-Eichinger (Editor)

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, School

232 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read a few of the short stories for school but not all of them (so I guess technically I didn’t read the whole book). The ones I did read weren’t bad. Some better than others. I did enjoy „Dead Men‘s path“ by Achebe (not only because it was 5 pages long) because the moral of the story was pretty good and I think it still fits into our time (more or less). Otherwise I’m not a big fan of stories that make a huge fuss about race and racism (not that it shouldn’t be talked about, because it obviously exists for a lot of people) but because I think we as a society have made it to a point where race shouldn’t be the difference between people. I enjoy books that are fun and focus on the positive things in life and humanity rather than the negative (that still needs to be worked on!).

[Kater Cheek · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the anthologies that my friend who teaches English Literature at a Gymnasium in Germany makes his students read. All of the stories deal with colonialism and the consequences thereof. My favorite short story was "Good Advice is More Precious than Rubies" by Salaman Rushdie. I didn't care much for the stories as entertainment, per se; I found them too ponderous and literary, but they do make you think about other cultures.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lieblingsgeschichte war a Pair of Jeans, bei der es darum ging, dass eine Pakistani, die in England lebte, ihre zukünftigen Schwiegereltern damit geschockt hat eine Jeans zu tragen und diese daraufhin die Hochzeit abgesagt haben. Dieses Kleidungsstück wurde mit allen Klischees der westlichen Welt gefüllt: keine Schätzung der Kultur, Unabhängigkeit, keine Umsorgung des Ehemannes, der Mann hat nichts zu sagen etc.

Generell ein interessantes Buch, mir hat noch mehr die Sicht der kolonisierten Menschen gefehlt und teilweise eine Ausführung. Teilweise waren die Enden der Geschichten zu abrupt, zu vage und hätten für meinen Geschmack weiter ausgeführt werden müssen.

[Enterpricicle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is commonly given to german students in their last two years of school, which is why I read it - bear that in mind when reading this review as I fear that dealing with these stories for 180 minutes a week for two years might have negatively influenced my opinions on this book.

Personally, I neither like nor dislike this book very much. Most of the stories are relatively easy and quick to read with a handful of boring, tedious ones and a couple of good ones (I rather liked Shooting An Elephant and A Horse And Two Goats).
I must say that discussing and taking apart each and every story (as we did in class) is not a good strategy of dealing with this book. It deals with colonialism and its more unpleasant sides, such as racism and the clashing of cultures, and as such every story has a 'morale' of sorts which can be irritating (especially if you start expecting it).
It depends on the story, of course, but the elements of judgement and racism that coloured some of the stories really rubbed me the wrong way. One of the stories, incidentally, is from an author (Narayan) who objected to another author's (Conrad) rather unfavourable portrayal of "the natives" and attempted to paint a more interesting, more distinguished portrait of native culture(s) in his story.
The fact that almost every story highlighted something unpleasant about the encounter of two cultures might be an accurate representation of the way things were during those times, but it doesn't make for a very entertaining read. This is a book you read to educate yourself; it is unpleasant at times, but it is definitely not a book you suffer through.

[English Education]

***spoiler alert*** TW: some short stories contain death, suicide
One Language, Many Voices is an anthology of short stories which deal with colonialism and its consequences. The eleven short stories can be divided according to the topics they examine: colonial encounters: rulers and subjects, cross-cultural experiences: transition and conflict, post-colonial consequences: searching for new identities. Besides the diverse topics, the anthology's biggest value lies in the different perspectives from which the stories are told. Thus, it gives insights into the experiences of colonizers as well as colonized, and the challenges these people have to face in their individual situations. Students will appreciate reading these short stories, as it will help them understand the consequences of colonialism. Furthermore, all of them are relatively so that students will not be overwhelmed by the amount they have to read.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology is worthwhile for the essays at the back - especially that of Salman Rushdie and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. These, though written 30 years ago, are still poignant and enlightening - not only for Britain but it's children like Australia. The short stories themselves are solid and also enlightening but not terribly entertaining.

There are marvellous authors here - Conrad and Maughaum, but the selections are examples of their run-of-the-mill works in my opinion. Doris Lessing's 'The Second Hut' *is* however, marvellous.