Switching Languages

Though it is difficult enough to write well in one's native tongue, an extraordinary group of authors has written enduring poetry and prose in a second, third, or even fourth language. Switching Languages is the first anthology in which translingual authors from throughout the world examine their experiences writing in more than one language or in a language other than their primary one. Driven by factors as varied as migration, imperialism, a quest for verisimilitude, and a desire to assert artistic autonomy, translingualism has a long and brilliant history.
In Switching Languages, Steven G. Kellman brings together several notable authors from the past one hundred years who discuss their personal translingual experiences and their take on a general phenomenon that has not received the attention it deserves.

Steven G. Kellman is a professor of comparative literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is the author of The Translingual Imagination (Nebraska 2000) and The Self-Begetting Novel, and is the co-editor of UnderWords: Perspectives on Don DeLillo's Underworld.

"Switching Languages shows that the choice to write in a language other than one's home language is not innocent. It imbricates an author's allegiance and loyalty to his or her native language, identity, history, and native discourse community. This choice can be both liberating and constraining, elating and painful. Kellman has put together in this reader a rich mix of perspectives and life trajectories from authors who write across various languages." Claire J. Kramsch, author of Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological Perspectives