From Publishers Weekly
Language, writes Ariel Dorfman, "contains the seeds of immigrants' most intimate identity." Thus, living in two languages presents a challenge to that identity. How does a writer, whose medium is language, confront such a challenge? De Courtivron, herself an immigrant to the U.S. from France and a professor at MIT, has gathered essays from more than a dozen authors exploring these issues. They come from all over the world and speak a multitude of tongues: Anton Shammas, an Israeli Arab, wryly relates his fumbling effort as a boy to buy sunflower seeds in Hebrew; Sylvia Molloy, raised bilingual in Argentina, writes of "shuttling between languages," which she finds "liberating" but also "laborious"; Yoko Tawada, a Japanese writer who lived for years in Germany, considers how words determine perception and describes her "multilingual web." Readers need not be bilingual to appreciate these fine essays; anyone fascinated by the mysteries of language and the art of writing will find much to admire here. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Being bilingual. What does it mean? Living in two languages, between two languages, or in the overlap of two languages? What is it like to write in a language that is not the language in which you were raised? To create in words other than those of your earliest memories, so far from the words of home and childhood and origin? To speak and write in a language other than the one which you once believed held the seamless connection between words and things? Do you constantly translate yourself, constantly switch, shift, alternate, not just vocabulary and syntax but consciousness and feelings? In a series of original essays, writers reflect on questions of identity, of choice, and of the difficult search for self and place. Products of the post-war global realities in which they have matured, they interrogate the individual, they explore the intimate experience, they ponder the strange itineraries that have led them from a childhood in one language to a writing life in another. Authors include Anita Desai, Eva Hoffman, Ariel Dorfman, Sylvia Molloy, Yoko Tawada, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Anton Shammas, Assia Djebar.
About the Author
Isabelle de Courtivron moved from France to the U.S. at the age of ten. She teaches French at MIT, where she is one of the coordinators of an international literary program. She is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Beyond French Feminisms.
Lives in Translation: Bilingual Writers on Identity and Creativity FROM THE PUBLISHER
Being bilingual. What does it mean? Living in two languages, between two languages, or in the overlap of two languages? What is it like to write in a language that is not the language in which you were raised? To create in words other than those of your earliest memories, so far from the words of home and childhood and origin? To speak and write in a language other than the one which you once believed held the seamless connection between words and things? Do you constantly translate yourself, constantly switch, shift, alternate, not just vocabulary and syntax but consciousness and feelings? In a series of original essays, writers reflect on questions of identity, of choice, and of the difficult search for self and place. Products of the post-war global realities in which they have matured, they interrogate the individual, they explore the intimate experience, they ponder the strange itineraries that have led them from a childhood in one language to a writing life in another. Authors include Anita Desai, Eva Hoffman, Ariel Dorfman, Sylvia Molloy, Yoko Tawada, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Anton Shammas, Assia Djebar.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Language, writes Ariel Dorfman, "contains the seeds of [immigrants'] most intimate identity." Thus, living in two languages presents a challenge to that identity. How does a writer, whose medium is language, confront such a challenge? De Courtivron, herself an immigrant to the U.S. from France and a professor at MIT, has gathered essays from more than a dozen authors exploring these issues. They come from all over the world and speak a multitude of tongues: Anton Shammas, an Israeli Arab, wryly relates his fumbling effort as a boy to buy sunflower seeds in Hebrew; Sylvia Molloy, raised bilingual in Argentina, writes of "shuttling between languages," which she finds "liberating" but also "laborious"; Yoko Tawada, a Japanese writer who lived for years in Germany, considers how words determine perception and describes her "multilingual web." Readers need not be bilingual to appreciate these fine essays; anyone fascinated by the mysteries of language and the art of writing will find much to admire here. (Aug. 27) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
De Courtivron (French & director, Ctr. for Bilingual/Bicultural Studies, MIT) has edited this collection of essays by literary authors from Anita Desai and Ariel Dorfman to Eva Hoffman and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, who discuss their experiences with and views about language-the fundamental tool not only of literary creation but of the creation of identity. How does language affect those who have grown up between or among two (or more) languages? How do the authors represented here find their inspiration, their material, or their voice from the various languages that have informed their worldview or competed for their political allegiance? Each author approaches these questions in her or his own way-some more informatively or interestingly than others; the writing ranges from autobiographical to lit crit-jargoned to poetic. Despite the widespread relevance of its theme, this book will appeal primarily to an academic audience. Suitable for academic libraries.-Anna Youssefi, Rice Univ. Lib., Houston Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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