Dossier spé LLCE

« The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi, 1990 Part two, The City Chapter 10, page 147 “Shadwell took me aside and said, ‘A word about the accent, Karim.

I think it should be an authentic accent.’ ‘What d’you mean authentic?’ ‘Where was our Mowgli born?’ ‘India.’ ‘Yes.

Not Orpington.

What accent do they have in India?’ ‘Indian accents.’ ‘Ten out of ten.’ ‘No, Jeremy.

Please, no.’ ‘Karim, you have been cast for authenticity and not for experience.’” “Next time it was mentioned the entire cast was present. ‘Now do the accent,’ Shadwell suddenly said.

‘I trust you’ve been rehearsing at home.’ ‘Jeremy,’ I pleaded.

‘It’s a political matter to me.’ He looked at me violently.

The cast watched me too, most of them sympathetically.

One of them, Boyd, had done EST and assertiontraining, and primal therapy, and liked to hurl chairs across the room as an expression of spontaneous feeling.

I wondered if he might not have some spontaneous feeling in my defence.

But he said nothing.

I looked towards Terry.

As an active Trotskyite he encouraged me to speak of the prejudice and abuse I’d faced being the son of an Indian.

In the evenings we talked of inequality, imperialism, white supremacy, and whether sexual experimentation was merely bourgeois indulgence or a contribution to the dissolution of established society.

But now, like the others, Terry said nothing but stood there in his tracksuit waiting to slide hissingly across the floor once more.”. »