Dwight Macdonald, language, and the discourse of the downward spiral
Tadeusz Lewandowski
Abstract
Dwight Macdonald’s writings on English designated the source of the language’s corruption in one ofits homelands: the United States. In “Updating the Bible” (1953), “The Decline and Fall of English” (1962), and his analysis of the third edition of Webster's New International Dictionary “The String Untuned” (1962), Macdonald presented a discourse that amounted to a call for the maintenance of standards in the face of a cultural and academic climate permeated by permissiveness, which to his mind debased English by rendering it less precise, aesthetically beautiful, and effective in communication. Countering this perceived downward spiral, therefore, became his main concern.
Keywords:
Dwight Macdonald, English, King James Version of the Bible, Revised Standard Version of the BibleReferences
Macdonald D., 1962 (1983), The Decline and Fall ofEnglish. - Against the American Grain: Essays on the Effects of Mass Culture, New York: Da Capo Press,
pp. 317-336.
Macdonald D., 1962 (1983), The String Untuned. Against the American Grain: Essays on the Effects of Mass Culture, New York: Da Capo Press, pp. 289-316.
Macdonald D., 1960 (1983), Masscult and Midcult. - Against the American Grain: Essays on the Effects of Mass Culture, New York: Da Capo Press, pp. 3-78.
Macdonald D., 1953 (1983), Updating the Bible. -Against the American Grain: Essays on the Effects of Mass Culture, New York: Da Capo Press, pp. 262-284.
Quenqua D., 2012, They’re, Like, Way Ahead of the Linguistic Currrrve, “The New York Times”, February 28, p. DI.
The United States of America and the Functional Illiterates who Contribute to its Decline, 2007, October 6, http://slowdecline.wordpress.com/2007/10/06/the
united-states-of-america-and-the-functional- illiterates-who-contribute-to- its-decline/(accessed May 1, 2012).
Wreszin M., 1994, A Rebel in Defense of Tradition: The Life and Politics of Dwight Macdonald, New York: Basic Books.
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Tadeusz LewandowskiStatistics
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