University of Potsdam - English Department

Professor Dr. Hans-Georg Wolf

Master Seminar: Asian and African Englishes
Author: Philip Ketzel
19. March 2010

Book Review

Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows by Alastair Pennycook

New York: Routledge. 2007.

“How is English related to cultural forms and practices? Does its global spread now

make it a culturally neutral language? Is the spread of English part of the gradual homogeni-

zation of the world? […] Or is English part of the greater diversification and heterogenisation

of the World? “ (5) Those are the framing questions for Pennycook‟s study in which he ex-

plores the interconnections between hip-hop and English in a globalizing society and ques-

tions the common concepts of language and education. What seems to be a very complex en-

deavor at first turns out to be a remarkable work about the transnational and transcultural ex-

changes and shaping of ideas, identity, culture and language.

In order to work out the various aspects necessary to understand the correlations be-

tween hip-hop and English, the text incorporates many scientific discourses and concepts, es-

pecially in first half of the text. The approach of the study is described by Pennycook as

transgressive applied linguistics, which means to push “the boundaries of applied linguistics

by interlinking an understanding of global Englishes, the transmodal practices of hip-hop, and

questions of performativity, identity and pedagogy.” (9)

The first chapter starts out with an anecdote about a rap concert in Malaysia from

which Pennycook draws his first examples, lyrics that are in the typical hip-hop English but

at the same time use Malaysian words and idioms to allude to the distinct local. On the basis
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of these examples, he elaborates how English is used by non native speakers to contextualize

and re-contextualize common practices, aspects and identities found in popular culture. To

grasp this process Pennycook introduces the term transcultural flows addressing “the ways in

which cultural forms move, change and are reused to fashion new identities in diverse con-

texts.” (6) He applies this view onto Hip-hop because he is “interested in how music and lan-

guage – with a particular focus on hip-hop and English – are simultaneously fluid and fixed,

move across space, borders, communities, nations, but also become localized, indigenized,

re-created in the local.” (8) Therefore he asks how such an use of English should be unders-

tood in terms of a linguistic concept raising questions like whether this is an example of Eng-

lish as a killer language, or a new form of English emerging. His proposal is the implementa-

tion of the term global Englishes, which he uses “to locate the spread and use of English

within critical theories of globalization” (5), because it is helpful “to understand the role of

English both critically – in terms of new forms of power, control and destruction – and in its

complexity – in terms of new forms of resistance, change, appropriation, and identity.” (5) A

more detailed elaboration of global Englishes and transcultural flows applied on the example

of hip-hop is then the main concern of the book.

In the second chapter, Pennycook “seeks to connect globalization and English.” (18)

He therefore redraws the two main opposing interpretations of globalization – namely the

homogenization and the heterogenisation of the world – and their connectedness to English.

However, his understanding of globalization and English tries to go beyond such dichotomies

by arguing that the linguistic imperialism and the world Englishes framework “are both mired

in a linguistics and a politics of the last century, focusing inexorably on languages and na-

tions as given entities, and ill-equipped to deal with current modes of globalization.” (23) Ac-

cording to Pennycook, the practice of center linguists like Kachru, to systematize variants of

the periphery Englishes by postulating a nation specific standard, needs to be criticized be-
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cause it leaves “out many eccentric, hybrid forms of local Englishes as too unsystematic.”

(23) In other words, since the concept of national culture becomes blurred in a globalizing

society, it also becomes important to criticize the validity of the linguistic notion variety.

Therefore, using the term global Englishes, Pennycook aims at an understanding “that focus-

es on both a critical understanding of globalization and a critical understanding of language.”

(23) The global Englishes concept needs to be understood against a background of complex

economical, social, cultural and political relations. (23)

In order to legitimizes his critic of the linguistic imperialism and the world Englishes

framework, Pennycook locates his study in the context of transgressive theories in the third

chapter. He says that this is necessary to cope with the “‟kaleidoscopic, ludic open flavor‟ of

language use in hip-hop that needs to be taken seriously as performance and transgression.”

(35) By using the „trans‟ prefix in many different ways in this section, the author wants to

point out that his proposed form of transgressive theory tries to go beyond former „post‟ and

„critical‟ theories, and that it is intended “to account for the transgressions of hip-hop and to

disrupt some standard onthologies […] of language in general and English in particular.” (36)

With the latter, he is alluding to Butler‟s and Foucault‟s questioning of power, sexuality,

identity and knowledge. Since this is not so easy to grasp right away, it seems appropriate

here to use Pennycook‟s own words when describing what he means by transgressive applied

linguistics.

“Rather than a method, a set of techniques or a fixed body of knowledge, I see critical
applied linguistics as a movable praxis, a constantly shifting and dynamic approach to ques-
tions of language in multiple contexts. Rather than viewing critical applied linguistics as a
new form of interdisciplinary knowledge, I prefer to view it as a form of anti-disciplinary or
transgressive knowledge, as a way of thinking and doing that is always problematizing. This
means not only that critical applied linguistics implies a hybrid model of research and praxis,
but also that it generates something which is far more dynamic. Critical applied linguistics
from this perspective is not about the mapping of a fixed politics on to a static body of know-
ledge, but rather is about creating something new.” (37)
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This reminds a little bit of Derrida‟s deconstructionism. Nevertheless, in order to under-

take his creative journey elaborating the dynamics of the global Englishes and the transcul-

tural flows in hip-hop, Pennycook needs some technical terms, which he introduces suffi-

ciently and uses as follows:

- transculturation and transidiomatic practices, refer “to the constant process of bor-

rowing, bending and blending of cultures, to the communicative practices of people

interacting across different linguistic and communicative codes, borrowing, bending

and blending languages into new modes of expression” (47)

- transmodality, implies “that meaning [always] occurs in multiple modes” since “there

is no such thing as language in isolation” (50)

- transtextuality and transsignification, refer to a form of social semiotics that includes

the pretextual history, the contextual relations, the subtextual meanings, the intertex-

tual echoes, and the posttextual interpretations (53)

- translation and translingualism, can be understood as a process of “making meaning

across and against codifications” (55)

Pennycook illustrates how all of the above can be found in of hip-hop, whereas the most

exemplifying would be the concept of sampling1. Sampling in hip-hop can refer to the copy-

ing, adaptation and re-contextualization: of beats and loops (of melodies and/or singing) from

any other sound recordings, of any kind of footage (e.g. graffiti), of fashion styles or any oth-

er somatic expressions (e.g. break dancing and beat boxing), and lastly, but most applicably

for the study, of certain rap „flows‟ and other linguistic features such as the typical English

hip-hop slang including the reiteration of certain topics and themes commonly covered in

1
The definition of sampling given here is a summary of what Pennycook describes in various places
throughout the text.
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hip-hop. So sampling in hip-hop can definitely be made understandable from a scientific

point of view by using the various „trans‟- concepts mentioned showing its linguistic, social,

cultural, artistic and political „transgressiveness‟.

The author‟s transition to the fourth chapter on performance and performativity is thus

a smooth one, since the transgressive character of hip-hop is very much based on the form in

which hip-hop is performed. Pennycook says that “understanding hip-hop performance is not

only a question of appreciating the implications of „performing live‟ but also appreciating the

ways in which both language and identity are produced in the performance.” (58) Alluding to

the somatic turn, the author‟s use of the term performance includes the aspect that each lan-

guage use is always tied to a body. He thereby reflects how a subjective somatic identity is

formed by locating oneself in the overall worldly context. He specifies performance “as the

socially embedded and culturally embodied use of language.” (63), and elaborates the history

of the notion and its relation to language by redrawing the discourse from Austin to Butler,

via Derrida and Bourdieu.

Pennycook views languages, from an anti-foundationalist perspective, as the result of

sedimented performances people chose from and refer to when communicating. (72 et seq.)

This notion of „sedimented‟ implies an organic and quasi-static character of language. When-

ever people use or better reuse a culturally conventionalized lexis, syntax, phonology, proso-

dy, modality, or semiotic in general, they reinforce the sedimentation of the performances

that form language. Then again, whenever the used semiotic differs from the sedimented per-

formances, people are transgressing norms, changing the context and the meaning, and there-

fore open up possibilities to change language with its embedded world views, ideologies and

identities. Being or becoming aware of the sedimentations that form our language enables us

to refashion ourselves with words. (74 et eq.) Pennycook describes how this refashioning of
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identity has been connected with the notions of performance and performativity by authors

like Butler and Derrida. In addition to it, he introduces the transformative, suggesting to use

the performative when referring to the reiteration of sedimented patterns and the transforma-

tive when referring to performances that transgresses the sedimented patterns. (76 et seq.)

Bringing the focus back to his example, since rap and hip-hop “as language and em-

bodied performances […] draw attention to language as a social action” (74), Pennycook then

uses his theoretical framework in the last four chapters to “locate hip hop within a broad phi-

losophical, cultural, linguistic and pedagogical understanding of transcultural flows.”(78) In

order to do so, he now incorporates a lot of examples, like hip-hop artist and scholars talking

about language use in hip-hop as well as citations of hip-hop lyrics.

In chapter five Pennycook starts out with a relatively long excurse about why popular

culture should be taken seriously when conducting a cultural, social or linguistic study. Al-

luding to the most prominent negative examples of the superficial and stereotypical US hip-

hop, he thereby argues that culturally conservative approaches tend to reduce hip-hop to these

kind of examples overseeing the overall complexity and diversity of hip-hop as a whole. The

same is happening if popular culture and hip-hop is just looked at from a Marxist or Frankfurt

School perspective interpreting it as the result of the hegemony of the elite or the homogeni-

zation of the world. (77 et seq.) Hence, he illustrates the elements, origins and spread of hip-

hop as well as talks about the politics of language and the ordinariness of diversity. With the

latter he draws a parallel to what he has said in chapter two about the linguistic imperialism

by saying that “[d]ifference and diversity, multilingualism and hybridity are not the rare and

exotic conditions to be sought out and celebrated but the quotidian ordinariness of everyday

life.” (95)

In how far the ordinariness of diversity plays a crucial role in the concept of authentic-

ity in general and in hip-hop in particular is the concern of chapter six. Here, Pennycook ex-
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plains how being authentic in hip-hop is always related to the usage of English. Alluding to

the tension that is created when global cultural practices and language use are being loca-

lized, he points out that being authentic in hip-hop is always about “performing multiple

forms of realism within the fields of change and flow made possible by transmodal and tran-

scultural language use.” (115) In other words, global Englishes in hip-hop are being used and

rendered according to the „trans‟-concepts into something local to refer to and to signal be-

longing to the global context of hip-hop, and at the same time, to distinguish oneself from it

for the means of staying true and being authentic.

The seventh chapter then takes a closer look at the language flows and language mix-

es that result out of the process of “the localization within the globalization of hip-hop.” (98)

Here, Pennycook incorporates the most examples illustrating what he means by global En-

glishes in hip-hop and showing how these global Englishes are the result of various „circles

of flow‟, with which he refers to the collaboration between hip-hop artists and other transcul-

tural flows that lead to these global Englishes. He thereby undermines his perspective that

hip-hop represents a good example capable of showing that “[t]he mixed codes of the street

[…] pose a threat to the linguistic, cultural and political stability urged by national language

policies and wished into place by frameworks of linguistic analysis that posit separate an

enumerable languages.” (137) To put it differently, this exemplifies how global Englishes

represents a form of globalization and spread of English much different to the rather narrow

interpretations mentioned earlier.

How hip-hop can in addition be understood as a form of education, is stressed by

Pennycook in the last chapter. Hip-hop‟s characteristic of localizing aspects of popular cul-

ture is always generating local knowledge. (140 et seq.) This local knowledge is then again

passed on through the various transgressive modes of hip-hop, which can be recognized with-

in the guild-like „crews‟ found in hip-hop communities. (149) Pennycook says that teachers
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could also use hip-hop‟s pedagogy because it “is a vehicle to reach young people not only to

educate on specific topics (domestic violence, drug use, sexuality transmitted deseases) or to

develop intellectual and somatic skills (music, literacy, dance), but also as a means to broa-

den an understanding of one‟s position in life.” (135) Going even further, he suggests an in-

corporation of hip-hop as well as other significant forms of popular culture into the curricu-

lum, pointing out the fact that this would enable both sides to learn from each other. (155 et

seq.) For that reason Pennycook ends his study by saying: “Languages will flow and change

around us, new combinations of languages and cultures will be put together, texts will be

sampled and mixed in ever new juxtapositions. Students are in the flow; pedagogy needs to

go with the flow.” (158)

Hopefully my review of this remarkable study was able to show the many interesting

possibilities and questions that arise when we understand the spread of English in our globa-

lizing societies according to Pennycook‟s notions of global Englishes and transcultural flows.

As an advanced scholar of English linguistics, I strongly suggest to include Pennycook‟s ap-

proach in future discourses about the spread and use of English in the world; and I also

strongly suggest to discuss his study in a theoretical linguistics context.

words: 2461

I hereby pledge that this book review is the result of my own hard work. All citations

have been indicated. For the rest of the text has to be understood as my interpretation of Pen-

nycook‟s text.
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Philip Ketzel

(Since this work is handed in digitally, and I do not have the possibilities to scan my sig-

nature, this pledge is legally binding without one)