In February, 2020 Purdue University Press published Dr. Steven G. Kellman’s book Nimble Tongues: Studies in Literary Translingualism. Nimble Tongues is a collection of essays that continues his work in the field of translingualism, focusing on the phenomenon of switching languages. Topics covered include the significance of translingualism; translation and its challenges; immigrant memoirs; the autobiographies that Ariel Dorfman wrote in English and Spanish, respectively; the only feature film ever made in Esperanto; Francesca Marciano, an Italian who writes in English; Jhumpa Lahiri, who has abandoned English for Italian; Ilan Stavans, a prominent translingual author and scholar; Hugo Hamilton, a writer who grew up torn among Irish, German, and English; Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, a Mexican who writes in English; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a multilingual text.
Though it might seem as modern as Samuel Beckett, Joseph Conrad, and Vladimir Nabokov, translingual writing – texts by authors using more than one language or a language other than their primary one – has an ancient pedigree. The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translingualism, co-edited by Fulbright Scholar Steven G. Kellman, aims to provide a comprehensive overview of translingual literature in a wide variety of languages throughout the world, from ancient to modern times.
The volume includes sections on translingual genres – with chapters on memoir, poetry, fiction, drama, and cinema; ancient, medieval, and modern translingualism; global perspectives – chapters overseeing European, African, and Asian languages.
Combining chapters from lead specialists in the field, this volume will be of interest to scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates interested in investigating the vibrant area of translingual literature. Attracting scholars from a variety of disciplines, this interdisciplinary and pioneering Handbook will advance current scholarship of the permutations of languages among authors throughout time.