Yingelishi: Sinophonic English Poetry and Poetics - Softcover

Stalling, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933996234 ISBN 13: 9781933996233

Publisher: Counterpath Pr, 2011

Synopsis

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Music. The nearly supernatural nature of this groundbreaking work can be glimpsed in the book's title: YÍNGĒLÌSHI (Chanted Songs, Beautiful Poetry): SINOPHONIC ENGLISH POETRY AND POETICS. When read aloud, YÍNGĒLÌSHI (pronounced yeen guh lee shr) sounds like an accented pronunciation of the word "English," while the Chinese reader sees the Chinese characters for "chanted songs, beautiful poetry." Stalling coined this term (and "Sinophonic English") to give a positive name to an increasingly widespread variation of English created by combining the two dominant languages of globalization (Mandarin Chinese and English). With over 350 million English speakers in China (more than there are Americans alive) many of whom speak English by recombining existing Chinese sounds into English words and sentences, this new hybrid language is already overwhelmingly present, yet its aesthetic potential has not yet been explored. Stalling's book complicates any easy dismissal of so-called Chinglish by creating a genuinely uncanny poetry written entirely in Sinophonic English. Stalling rewrites a common English phrasebook into hauntingly beautiful Chinese poetry (which is all translated into English) that when sung, becomes an uncannily accented libretto, a story of a Chinese tourist's one-way journey into this interstitial language and its sonorous, if disastrous, consequences.

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Stalling is an Assistant Professor of English Literature at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of Poetics of Emptiness: Transformations of Asian Thought in American Poetry (Fordham University Press, 2010), and a co-editor of The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry, A Critical Edition (Fordham, 2008). He is also the author of a books of poetry GROTTO HEAVEN (Chax Press, 2010) and YINGELISHI: SINOPHONIC ENGLISH POETRY AND POETICS (Counterpath Press, 2011).

Edition details

• Publisher: Counterpath Pr
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1933996234
• ISBN 13: 9781933996233
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 92