Pigeon English
- Full Title: Pigeon English
- Where Written: Marsh Farm Estate, Luton, UK
- When Published: 2011
- Literary Period: Twenty-first-century British Fiction
- Genre: Crossover Young Adult/Literary Fiction
- Setting: A fictional neighborhood in London, UK
What is the setting of the book Pigeon English?
Stephen Kelman’s 2011 debut novel, Pigeon English, recounts eleven-year-old Harrison (Harri) Opoku’s move with his mother and older sister from Ghana to England, where they go to live in a working-class apartment complex in a London estate, a tough environment plagued by crime and violence.
What is the point of view of Pigeon English?
For pigeons of England, see List of pigeon breeds. Pigeon English is the debut novel by English author Stephen Kelman. It is told from the point of view of Harrison Opoku, an eleven-year-old Ghanaian immigrant living on a tough London estate. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2011.
Is Pigeon English a fairytale?
Photograph: Lorna Roach for the Observer T he story of Stephen Kelman's debut novel Pigeon English is the unlikeliest of fairytales. Not, however, for its protagonist, Harri Opoku, an 11-year-old Ghanaian immigrant caught up in gang warfare on a south London estate, but for its author.
Is there a study guide for Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman?
Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of “Pigeon English” by Stephen Kelman. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
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Where is Harri from in Pigeon English?
Accra, GhanaHarrison Opoku, nicknamed “Harri,” is the protagonist and narrator of the novel. He is eleven years old, in Year 7 at school, and has recently moved to London from Accra, Ghana.
Why is the book called pidgin English?
The 'Pigeon English' of the title refers to the vernacular of the estate occupants and also to the pigeon Harri believes is watching over him like a guardian angel. To the dismay of a reader who may want to give this novel a fair go, the pigeon talks back!
What age is Pigeon English for?
Pigeon English is a book that can be read by adults and should also probably be read by maturer children ages 10 and up—despite some of the adult themes involved.
What does Asweh mean?
I swearAsweh is Ghanaian slang. It is a shortening of the phrase “I swear,” and has the same meaning.
What is Nigerian English called?
Nigerian English, also known as Nigerian Standard English, is a dialect of English spoken in Nigeria. Based on British English, the dialect contains various loanwords and collocations from the native languages of Nigeria, due to the need to express concepts specific to the culture of the nation (e.g. senior wife).
How many African countries speak pidgin English?
It is widely spoken in Nigeria, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. There are differences, because English is mixed with different languages in each country but they are usually mutually intelligible.
Who is Agnes in pigeon English?
Agnes is Harri's baby sister. She stays in Accra when Harri moves to London because Mamma works too much to be able to take care of her.
When was pigeon English written?
2011The novel was published in 2011 and received a host of awards, including the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Galaxy National Book Award for a new writer, the Guardian First Book Award, the Writers' Guild Award for Fiction, and the Man Booker Prize.
What does the pigeon represent in pigeon English?
As is indicated by the title, pigeons are the most important symbol in the novel, representing freedom from oppression and prejudice. Part of the reason why pigeons are so significant is because of the parallels the novel establishes between pigeons and people, and especially immigrants like Harri.
Who invented pidgin English?
It originated as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders during the period of the transatlantic slave trade. As of 2017, about 75 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea used the language.
What is pidgin and example?
Pidgins generally consist of small vocabularies (Chinese Pidgin English has only 700 words), but some have grown to become a group's native language. Examples include Sea Island Creole (spoken in South Carolina's Sea Islands), Haitian Creole, and Louisiana Creole.
What is a pidgin in linguistics?
A pidgin is a restricted language which arises for the purposes of communication between two social groups of which one is in a more dominant position than the other. The less dominant group is the one which develops the pidgin.
What are the characteristics of pidgin?
Pidgins usually have the following characteristics:Their morphology is usually isolating.They tend not to have complicated phrase structures.Syllables tend to be simple and often lack codas.Consonant clusters are simplified.Linguistic characteristics such as gender and number (singular and plural) are excluded.
When was Pigeon English published?
His first novel, Pigeon English, was picked from a “slush pile” by his agent. The novel was published in 2011 and received a host of awards, including the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Galaxy National Book Award for a new writer, the Guardian First Book Award, the Writers’ Guild Award for Fiction, and the Man Booker Prize.
Why is Pigeon English used in prison?
Reading for all. As well as being included in school curricula, Pigeon English has been used to help encourage reading within prisons.
What inspired Stephen Kelman to write Pigeon English?
Stephen Kelman has stated in interviews that he was partially inspired to write Pigeon English by the 2000 murder of Damilola Taylor, a ten-year-old boy who had recently immigrated to London from Lagos, Nigeria. Damilola was stabbed by two older boys and left to bleed to death in a stairwell in Peckham, a neighborhood in London that was known for its high crime rate. Taylor’s murder brought the issue of rising knife crime to the attention of the British public. Knife crime continues to be a topical issue in the UK and particularly in London, with 40,000 knife-related offences recorded by police in 2017. Besides knife crime, Pigeon English also addresses issues related to immigration. In 2010, one year before Pigeon English was published, a coalition government led by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron began to implement a harsher immigration policy, particularly influenced by the notoriously anti-immigration Home Secretary Theresa May. In 2010, May instituted the “hostile environment” policy, nicknamed as such after she commented that she aimed to “create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants.” Anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK culminated in the 2016 “Brexit” referendum, in which a majority of British voters elected to leave the European Union.
What does the pigeon do in the movie?
His pigeon, which he covertly tries to feed and converse with during its frequent visits to his windowsill, functions like a guardian angel of sorts (if only in his own mind). The pigeon takes over the narrative on occasion, which provides a more somber, adult-like viewpoint of Harri’s world.
What is a supersummary of Pigeon English?
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
What is Pigeon English about?
Pigeon English, which draws heavily on the killing of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor on a Peckham estate in 2000, weaves this suffering into a murder-mystery of sorts. After the seemingly random stabbing of an older boy outside a fried chicken shop, Harri and his friend Dean turn amateur detectives, scrutinising the estate and its dysfunctional inhabitants for clues. "We're looking for the knife the dead boy got killed with," he explains. "It's called the murder weapon." Kelman has already been much praised for his ability to write from an 11-year-old's perspective, but here, as often in the first half of the novel, Harri's voice feels laboured and faux-naïf.
How old is Harri Opoku in Pigeon English?
T he story of Stephen Kelman's debut novel Pigeon English is the unlikeliest of fairytales. Not, however, for its protagonist, Harri Opoku, an 11-year-old Ghanaian immigrant caught up in gang warfare on a south London estate, but for its author.
