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‘Pens that confound the label of citizenship’: self-translations and literary identities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2020

Rita Wilson Open the ORCID record for Rita Wilson [Opens in a new window]
Rita Wilson*
Affiliation:
School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University, Victoria, Australia
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Abstract

The linguistic and cultural identity of transnational writers who choose to write in an adopted language or to self-translate, has gained increasing interest among researchers over the last decade. Approaches to the topic have ranged from textual analyses of translingual narratives and language memoirs to more ontological investigations of the processes of identity-formation in transcultural frameworks. Acknowledging that there is no one-to-one correspondence between linguistic units and ethnic, social or cultural formations, this paper considers the relationship between the literary practices of contemporary translingual writers and the role of language both in the formation of personal identities and in the reconfiguration of constructions of national identity and literary belonging. Specifically, I examine how two contemporary women writers, Francesca Marciano and Jhumpa Lahiri, who each represent a remarkable case of self-conscious linguistic transformation, interrogate the traditional construct of a monolingual, mono-ethnic and mono-cultural national identity. I argue that their autofictions reflect the multilingual and transcultural reality of contemporary transnational literature and instantiate broader issues connected with the definition, categorisation and consequent evaluation of literary canons and literary citizenship.

L'identità linguistica e culturale degli scrittori transnazionali che scelgono di scrivere in una lingua adottata o di auto-tradursi, ha guadagnato un crescente interesse tra i ricercatori nell'ultimo decennio. Gli approcci all'argomento hanno spaziato da analisi testuali di narrazioni e memorie translinguistiche a indagini più ontologiche sui processi di formazione dell'identità in strutture transculturali. Riconoscendo che non esiste una corrispondenza individuale tra unità linguistiche e formazioni etniche, sociali o culturali, questo articolo considera il rapporto tra le pratiche letterarie degli scrittori translinguistici contemporanei e il ruolo del linguaggio sia nella formazione delle identità personali che nella riconfigurazione di costruzioni di identità nazionale e appartenenza letteraria. In particolare, esamino come due scrittrici contemporanee, Francesca Marciano e Jhumpa Lahiri, che rappresentano ciascuna un caso straordinario di trasformazione linguistica autocosciente, mettono in dubbio il costrutto tradizionale di un'identità nazionale monolingue, monoetnica e monoculturale. Sostengo che le loro autofiction riflettono la realtà multilingue e transculturale della letteratura transnazionale contemporanea e istanziano questioni più ampie connesse alla definizione, alla categorizzazione e alla conseguente valutazione dei canoni letterari e della cittadinanza letteraria.

Keywords

transnational literatureself-translationtranslingual writerslanguage and identityJhumpa LahiriFrancesca Marciano
Type
Special Issue
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 25 , Special Issue 2: Transcultural Exchanges and Encounters in Italy , May 2020 , pp. 213 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Association for the Study of Modern Italy

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