The Translingual Imagination - Tapa dura

"This is a new territory, presented with a breathtakingly global scope."-Werner Sollors, author of Neither Black Nor White Yet Both -- Werner Sollors "Steven Kellman's book results in both an innovative introduction to the general phenomenon of translingual literature and in a well-argued case for reading and analyzing individual translingual African and Jewish authors... The Translingual Imagination is a pioneer book in this field, which has long deserved an in-depth study such as this one presented by Kellman. He opens a window of opportunities for those interested in translingual and comparative literature and leaves the reader with a sweet appetite to read works by the writers considered."-E. Nunez-Mendez, South Central Review South Central Review

It is difficult to write well even in one language. Yet a rich body of translingual literature-by authors who write in more than one language or in a language other than their primary one-exists. The Translingual Imagination is a pioneering study of the phenomenon, which is as ancient as the use of Arabic, Latin, Mandarin, Persian, and Sanskrit as linguae francae. Colonialism, war, mobility, and the aesthetics of alienation have combined to create a modern translingual canon. Opening with an overview of this vast subject, Steven G. Kellman then looks at the differences between ambilinguals-those who write authoritatively in more than one language-and monolingual translinguals-those who write in only one language but not their native one. Kellman offers compelling analyses of the translingual situations of African and Jewish authors and of achievements by authors as varied as Antin, Beckett, Begley, Coetzee, Conrad, Hoffman, Nabokov, and Sayles. While separate studies of individual translingual authors have long been available, this is the first in-depth study of the general phenomenon of translingual literature.