conferito da European Association for the Study of English
- 2012
- Il premio è stato assegnato con la seguente motivazione alla monografia Practices of Proximity. The Appropriation of English in Australian Indigenous Literature. Cambridge Scholars, 2010:
Through an innovative approach that employs a variety of theoretical approaches knowledgeably and astutely, Russo's book challenges a number of assumptions concerning 'genuine' Indigenous Australian culture and its relationship with English. It also challenges those essentializing anthropological approaches that argue for the authenticity of what they regard as valid oral productions in Indigenous languages, as opposed to more recent artistic forms such as rock or rap. Practices of Proximity treats the term ‘appropriation’ in ways that allow the term to expand fluidly within a constantly shifting English language frame. Ultimately, Russo gives this contested and ambiguous term a new dimension in the process of exploring oral and written text as a site of contact. 'Proximity' suggests a zone of endless possibilities for authors, readers and language users to share and reinvent meaning and agency in the context of the painful colonial encounter. The Indigenous peoples of Australia have adapted and adopted the language of the colonizers to make it their own and to suit it to their own needs of self-expression. This well-written book makes a valuable intervention in the field of postcolonial studies. Yet, this intervention has a universal scope. Russo's discussion offers ways of reading and understanding cultural and historical as well as linguistic paradigms that are pertinent to any situations of conflict, colonial domination, neocolonial power systems and questions of minority cultural production.
