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No 3 (46) 2016

From „neither this nor that” to „a stereoscopic and stereophonic attitude to the world”: writers’ attitude to bilingualism

From „neither this nor that” to „a stereoscopic and stereophonic attitude to the world”: writers’ attitude to bilingualism

Olga Kubińska (University of Gdansk)

The full version of this article is available  in Polish  in the printed version of Tekstualia and in the on-line subscription.

The article examines the problem of bilingualism from a diachronic perspective in the context of the contribution of current cultural theories (gender, postcolonial) to the perception of multilingualism in contemporary culture. A distinct issue in this research is compulsory bilingualism caused by the Holocaust and involuntary resettlement processes resulting from political harassment. The article also emphasizes the import of cultural anthropology, cognitive sciences and the sociology of translation into the redefi nition of the very notion of bilingualism and the infl uence of this phenomenon on such remote from literature spheres as therapy. Refl ection on bilingualism is largely dependent on the intellectual capacity of the bilingual authors conducting self-analysis. The cases of Eva Hoffman and Anna Wierzbicka provide more than adequate evidence which signifi cantly complements the testimony of philosophers, such as trilingual George Steiner, and bilingual writers, such as Conrad, Nabokov or Brodsky. Finally, it should be added that globalization favors bilingualism among authors but often also provides the rationale for choosing a less popular language as a means of expression.

The sample of Polish version of this article is available here: https://tekstualia.pl/files/c596f4db/kubinska_olga_pisarze_wobec_bilingwizmu.pdf 

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