exophony
only time will tell. until then, the maturing tradition of exophony successfully continues apace .
exophony is the practice of (normally creative) writing in a language that is not one' s mother tongue .
there is certainly commercial sense in this ongoing tradition of exophony: as the guardian recently reported, only 7% of fiction books sold in the uk in 2015 were foreign - language translations into english (just 1. 5% of books published overall) .
what do samuel beckett, joseph brodsky and milan kundera have in common? all three writers were exophonic: they chose to write in a language that was not their mother tongue. this new course will look at the phenomenon of exophony in the modern era, considering how the adoption of a foreign literary language intersects with experiences of trauma, exile and migration, with the nation state, the postcolonial, globalisation and late capitalism. it will look at the implications of exophony for the self, the text, the reader and society, and investigate the extent to which translational processes - in the widest sense - might play a role in exophony. we will read a variety of twentieth - century and contemporary exophonic literary texts - some originally composed in english and others translated from languages including japanese and german .
from this gloomy statistic (and the fact that most schools don’t promote the reading of foreign - language books, creating in society a foundation of inability to consume foreign literature in its original form), exophony can perhaps be seen as a case of self - perpetuating this “boundary” to western publishing success .
such exophony doesn’t just exist in foreign - language to english translation, either, but from english to various other tongues. for instance, irishman samuel beckett famously opted to write in french (as did the czech author milan kundera), precisely to escape the stylistic restraints his native tongue put on him. a desire also echoed in conrad’s purpose. the telegraph explains ,
great authors who have employed such exophony include joseph conrad. the heart of darkness author was a polish merchant - marine captain who only gained british nationality in his late twenties. conrad never lost his polish accent. never mind that english was his third language (after french). his reason for writing in english? its plasticity. and to this end, he was a master. as the telegraph wrote ,
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> by the end of 2015 formed the ensemble exophony tokyo. 5 / 2016 to debut concert in toyosu civic center hall .
la folle journee au japon 2016
on kiosk concert tours. do collaborative concert with ensemble steuerman in april this year. this time, kamei yong province, in the guest program welcomes (violin), kai fumiko (viola), including mr. shinohara makoto quartet world premiere and other japan premiere 3 songs in concert .
the phenomenon of writing in assumed languages by non - native speakers has in recent years been referred to as exophony (from the greek ἔξω, éxō, ‘outer, external’ and φωνή, phōnē, ‘ sound, voice ’). the term was coined by literary translator chantal wright ¹, an associate professor at the university of warwick, who has specialised in the experimental translation of exophonic prose such as porträt einer zunge ² (‘portrait of a tongue’), a text written by german - language writer yoko towada’s, who is a native speaker of japanese. reasons to get involved with exophonic writing will obviously vary from one author to the next. some may wish to distance themselves from the cultural environment they were born into, some aim at an audience beyond the limits of their native language, and others seek to explore a kind of inspiration that comes from the use of a language communicating in which you do not take for granted. in my case, it is a combination of these .
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as a judicial concept dating back to the 17th century, the term ex (tra) territoriality has long excited the interest of scholars and writers who have, since the 20th century, not hesitated to appropriate the notion, widening and transforming it in the process. this transfer to the field of humanities has opened a new space of reflection, a space for imagination, through the means of a creative re - reading, among others, which has given rise to new but related concepts such as “deterritorialization”. to take into account the growing importance of this extraterritoriality paradigm reassessing the idea of territory in literature, culture and languages, this book offers an interdisciplinary and plurilingual journey through four centuries, four continents and a dozen languages, from literature to new media, encompassing philosophy, history, linguistics, the press, the cinema… notion juridique remontant au xviie siècle, le terme d’ex (tra) territorialité suscite depuis longtemps l’intérêt des sciences humaines et de la littérature qui, depuis le xxe siècle, n’ont pas hésité à se l’approprier pour l’élargir et le transformer. ce transfert du qualificatif ex (tra) territorial vers les humanités a ouvert un autre espace de réflexion, un espace d’imagination, grâce notamment à une relecture créatrice, ce qui a pu donner lieu à de nouveaux concepts apparentés comme celui de « déterritorialisation ». pour tenir compte de l’importance grandissante d’une pensée de l’ex (tra) territorialité, mettant en question la notion de territoire dans les domaines littéraire, culturel et linguistique, le présent ouvrage propose un parcours interdisciplinaire et plurilingue à travers quatre siècles, quatre continents et une dizaine de langues, de la littérature aux nouveaux médias, en passant par la philosophie, l’histoire, la linguistique, la presse, le cinéma, etc .
publication date: 1 january 2014 subjects: comparative studies & world literature, literature and cultural studies status: published publisher: brill | rodopi pages arabic: 330 extent: 330 pp .
tutor: dr chantal wright (h523), c. m. wright @ urltoken
2016 / 17, thursdays 16: 30 - 18: 00. room g03, millburn house .
* * please access talis aspire via the library webpage for the up - to - date 2016 - 17 reading list. * *
illustrative bibliography (nb: the tutor reserves the right to make changes to this bibliography; students will be given ample notice of any changes. )
ashcroft, b. griffiths, g. and tiffin, h. , 2002. the empire writes back. 2nd ed. london: routledge. (extracts) barthes, r. , 1982. empire of signs. translated from french by r. howard. new york: hill and wang. (extracts) brodsky, j. , 1986. less than one. selected essays. new york: farrar, straus and giroux. (' to please a shadow' and' in a room and a half') coates, j. , 1999. changing horses. nabokov and translation. in: j. boase - beier and m. holman, eds. the practices of literary translation. manchester: st. jerome. derrida, j. , 1998. the monolingualism of the other or the prosthesis of origin. translated from french by p. mensah. stanford, calif. : stanford university press. jin, h. , 2008. the writer as migrant. chicago: university of chicago press. yildiz, y. , 2012. beyond the mother tongue: the postmonolingual condition. new york: fordham university press. (extracts )
emine sevgi oezdamar, the bridge over the golden horn. trans. m. chalmers (2007 )
levy hideo, a room where the star - spangled banner cannot be heard. trans. c. d. scott (2011 )
yoko tawada, portrait of a tongue. trans. c. wright (2013) and' canned foreign' and' the talisman'. trans. s. bernofsky (2002 )
samuel beckett, molloy. trans. p. bowles in collaboration with the author and edited by s. weller. (2009 )
tzveta sofronieva, a hand full of water. trans. c. wright. (2012 )
elias canetti, the tongue set free. trans. j. neugroschel. (1979 )
book news, fantasy, human interest, j. k. rowling, lists, reading, young adult
bookish events, human interest, j. k. rowling, news, potterheads
to this end, and others, some authors have skipped the middleman and turned their backs on their mother tongue to write in english .
dubbed an “exophonic community, ” the end goal is fundamentally for the purpose of gaining a wider readership. additionally, there are reasons both political and personal, let alone stylistic – whether in the sense of the cultural heritage of their mother tongue, or in order to avoid the pitfalls of leaving their texts in the hands of a translator .
“conrad’s writing can be hard going – tortuous, choppy, syntactically awkward – but beneath this apparent chaos is a meticulous lexical precision, while his stream - of - consciousness style is one of the finest examples of early literary modernism. ”
of course, even more extensive an exophonic author was vladimir nabokov. having fled his native russia in 1919, the pale fire author went to study in cambridge, lived in germany, and eventually moved to the united states to lecture in comparative literature. comparing nabokov with conrad (and later such writers), this learned multilingualism becomes an apparent pattern in exophones – but then, such internationality is what leads to textual creation in that most international of languages: english .
indeed, nabokov was as good at pinning down the correct word needed as he was in his passion for lepidoptery, his writing never faltering in lexical precision and delight – whatever the language. in fact, the telegraph describes the 1955 lolita as “a polyglot’s love letter to language scurrilously dressed up as a pederast’s love letter to a sullen child. ”
“for beckett, english felt too cluttered: psychologically, linguistically, emotionally. writing in a second language allowed him to pare things back. ”
this was not simply a 20th century literary tactic. today’s exophonic authors include eugen chirovici, a romanian whose murder - mystery, the book of mirrors, was eagerly snapped up for a seven - figure sum by the publishing world last year (its release date is set for february 2017) .
“growing up behind the iron curtain, he felt that england and america stood for freedom, and this stoked his passion for the works of the anglo - american canon [ … ] english is the new lingua franca nowadays. ”
when you pause to consider that this section of the market includes authors like haruki murakami, ever popular swedish authors, and the recently unmasked elena ferrante, it is at first puzzling. however, those who don’t make the bestseller list are not deemed up to par. alexandra bücher of literature across frontiers explains ,
“i don’t think we are getting the picture of piles of translated books not selling, because booksellers are really picky about who ends up on the shelves [ … ] the independent booksellers who were happier to get translated books are disappearing. ”
therein lies the rub, and the whys and wherefores behind the need for exophones like turkish - speaking elif shafak, nadeem aslam (urdu), yiyun li, ha jin, and xiaolu guo (all chinese), gary shteyngart and boris fishman (both russian), and bosnian - speaking author aleksandar hemon (who published his first anglophone story only three years after having had to remain in the states due to war breaking out in his home country) .
in short, it makes commercial sense. and yet, anna webber of united agents made a general admission :
“ [ t ] he problem is that not many publishers speak foreign languages [ … ] this is why i have to stick to representing a low number of foreign authors – about 10% of all the writers i work with. ”
nevertheless, there exists hope for change in the form of the man booker international prize for literature in translation, which has been going since 2005 (the latest winner being the vegetarian by han kang, translated by deborah smith) .
some exophonic authors may be bilingual or multilingual from their childhood years, even polyglots, while others may write in an acquired language. in some cases the second language is acquired early in life, for example through immigration, and it is not always clear whether the writer should strictly be classed a non - native speaker. it is one form of transnational literature, although the latter also encompasses writing that crosses national stylistic or cultural boundaries without being written in another language .
it also overlaps with translingualism, and translingualist writer is one of many terms that has been coined to describe the phenomenon .
some exophonic authors are also translators, including (in some cases) of their own works .
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writing about the marginal surrealist leonora carrington in the new york times book review of 4 june, parul sehgal introduces us (me anyway) to the concept of exophonic writers: writers who wrote in languages other than their native tongue. wikipedia has, inevitably, a list. ms sehgal alludes to the following :
leonora carrington: incomprehension brings liberation. “i was not hindered by a preconceived idea of the words... this made it possible for me to invest the most ordinary phrases with a hermetic significance. ”
vladimir nabokov: was kind of forced into it. “my private tragedy, which cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern, is that i had to abandon my natural idiom. ”
yuko otomo: english is more democratic than japanese. “i am elated to address a professor and a dog with the same pronoun ‘you’. ”
jhumpa lahiri: a sort of rebirth: she finds writing in italian makes her “a tougher, freer writer, who, taking root again, grows in a different way”. (which seems to have involved the rediscovery of the comma! )
emil cioran: purging the past. “when i changed my language, i annihilated my past, i changed my entire life. ”
samuel beckett: a desire for self - exposure. “more and more my own language appears to me like a veil that must be torn apart in order to get at the things (or the nothingness) behind it. ”
quite interesting. i often say that i have found myself able to say things in a foreign language which i’d never say in english. so i’d add a category of de - inhibitor to ms sehgal’s list .
jhumpa lahiri’s switch has attracted some comment. the economist examines the move, while tim parks, in the new york review of books provides a devastating review of the result. success in writing confronts the writer with the burden of expectations. people liked your first book; lots of them bought it; and they are now waiting for more of the same. maybe switching to a different language provides a bit of cover ?
was originally published in english. it was translated as it was being written (from german to english) by koestler’s companion daphne hardy. in the chaos of wartime they were scrambling to get the book done before the germans authorities caught up with them. they did get rough translation off to england, and sent the original german manuscript to swiss publisher emil opprecht. everyone assumed that the original was lost, hence the need to publish from the english translation. when a german edition was published it had to be freshly translated by koestler into german from the “original” reworked english version. as it turns out the manuscript sent to opprecht did arrive, and has recently been unearthed. the publisher of the german edition
“ullstein noted that koestler was using ‘a great deal of foreign words instead of german expressions’ in his translation and asked for permission to change them into idiomatic german. there is irony here, for the english translation koestler worked from is itself full of german words and phraseology, a neat reversal. ”
had just been translated into french), i was invited by the bbc world service to cross the channel and settle down in britain. ten years later i became a british citizen. like many of my contemporaries i think, speak and write in two, if not three, languages. what unites these foreign personae is my foreign accent. ”
he points out that conrad liked to visit paris at least in part because there nobody detected his accent; they all thought he spoke perfect english. (but conrad spoke excellent french, so i’m not sure why he’d need to be speaking in english .) my stepfather, also a pole, never lost his heavy accent, and although not a writer, would i imagine have written in polish where his vocabulary remained much larger. in the mill buttons were always referred to as
( goozh - eekee). many’s the time i’ve run upstairs for him to “get that... you know what... that thingummy”; one would just bring objects downstairs until inspiration lit on the right one .
zinik mentions adalbert chamisso, author of peter schlemiel, a classic of 19th century german literature, who was born of french émigré parents who were fleeing the revolution and was bi - lingual all his life. there have always been lots of people like that. surely now the pace of population movement has accelerated to such a pitch that one can no longer rely on an inhabitant of say edinburgh speaking english (in so far as one ever could; many would claim that lowland scots is incomprehensible to a “real” english speaker. it is however an english dialect, whatever they say, unlike gaelic .) so the expectation that a native citizen of any country should think, dream, speak, write in the language of that country becomes less and less tenable. and i refrain from a discussion here of jewish identity; it just gets too complicated. yiddish is in a similar position now to scots gaelic: very few speak it; many wish they did .
is this written in english? of course it is, but william barnes wrote in the dialect of his native dorset. it’s his poem “token”. how about burns? a dialect speaker writing in the nation’s formal language shares much with the exophonic writer. many a folk critic would want them just to pull up their socks and write proper english. some of us seem to find it hard to believe that people can really communicate in ways which we don’t readily understand. the demand that everyone write like “we” do is a bit like shouting english words slowly at a spaniard, and concluding that his failure to comprehend betokens idiocy. the funniest thing i’ve read recently is this from a review in the same issue of the tls “when de waal asked colleagues why primate face recognition tests used human faces as the target data, he was told it was thought to be an easier test for primates to pass, since human faces differ so much. ” the review does not go on to mention all these chimpanzee ethologists who are scratching their heads despairing of their human subjects’ inability to distinguish between ape faces which of course “differ so much”. (de waal himself writes in english though he was born in the netherlands and only moved to the usa in his early thirties. you wouldn’t know he wasn’t writing in his native language. of how many academics must this be true? )
* but his father was a translator of english into polish, and conrad did spend 16 years in the british merchant marine, became a british citizen in 1886 at the age of 28, and lived in england for the rest of his life. he claimed to enjoy the “plastic” freedoms the english language provided him. all of which might seem more explanatory, or at least relevant .
[ … ] but not to black letter readers i’m sure”. it’s a bit reminiscent of those primate researchers who’d use human faces in testing chimpanzee facial recognition abilities, because human [ … ]
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i have recently begun working (again) on a piece of fictional prose that i had been procrastinating over for years — for a large part due to a long struggle with the question whether or not to write it in german. in the following article i try to explain the rationale behind my choosing the english language over my mother tongue .
aspiring writers of any given genre of fiction will have many things crossing their minds when contemplating a new project: find an overarching theme, develop storylines, characterise your dramatis personae, stage the setting, explore subplots for the various characters — and so on and so forth. one idea, however, is unlikely to make the list: to be writing in a language that you are not a native speaker of .
my native language is german. my background, as i see it, is that of what i would like to call an ‘in - between author’ — someone experienced in working with language as a profession, who at the same time lacks the practical experience needed to craft a fictional narrative into a functioning piece of catching prose. a copywriter and language and communication specialist by education and profession, i have worked with the german language on a professional basis for many years. extensive reading, writing, editing and revising german - language material, from press releases to editorial texts, and from blog entries to colourful product descriptions — all that used to come with my job. i have meanwhile switched professions (i mainly work as a tea educator these days), but my life - long dealings with the german language have elevated me to a certain level of self - assuredness regarding my skills. words finding me effortlessly is what i am accustomed to, editing a german - language text to me is but a delightful excursion into a myriad of syntactic possibilities, and fine - tuning a sentence leaves me thrilled to bits over making it more easily accessible .
consequently, it may not come as too much of a surprise that, when i tell people (especially those with a monolingual background) that i am working on a novel project — even worse: my first one — and that i have taken it upon myself to pursue (and ultimately realise) said project in english, frequently rather than rarely do i receive puzzled, or even bemused reactions. why would i choose to leave behind the safe framework of my natively assumed eloquence so easily, when the very act of creative writing is demanding enough a challenge already? of course, in some cases such a reaction can be explained as a loyal expression of concern about me wasting my time as well as my alleged creative potential while struggling with a foreign language for which i will never be able to get a sufficiently enough grasp to entirely trust my authorial gut feeling. close friends might feel obliged, and rightly so, to point out to me the difficulties that i will undoubtedly be facing should i dare move forward my audacious endeavour .
before i proceed, let me add a bit of context here by elaborating to some extent what my novel project at hand is about in the first place. the book on the realisation of which i have been procrastinating since 2010 (sic), is supposed to become a novel set in not too distant a future. offering an outlook towards a time where humans might have probed further into our solar system, possibly establishing a permanent presence on planets other than earth. the main characters of this work - in - progress novel live on one of those planetary colonies. one character, a physicist and engineer, hopes to finish her life’s work in the form of some development that will ease the environmental restrictions that the population of one of said planetary colonies has been forced to abide to. another character, a medical scientist working between the conflicting priorities of science and politics, will be used to paraphrase a comment on the discourse surrounding contemporary concepts of gender and identity. a third character is supposed to bridge the gap between scientific discourse and social dynamics, adding, if you will, a kind of meta - perspective angle to the narrative. scientific plausibility is — i cannot stress that enough — the very heart of the whole project. i am just a backyard astronomer who, back in school, used to be bad at science; but even though i am not a scientist myself, my layperson passion for planetary science and my affinity for cosmology have based my inspiration on a perception of reality that is deeply rooted in the approach of the scientific method. consequently, what i really hope to achieve with this project is to create something hat can serve as both a compelling sci - fi - esque read and as a commentary on the social dynamics of the present as i perceive it. should anyone end up regarding it as inspiring towards the future development of the world society, i shall be a happy person. here is to hoping i will not end up producing something entirely irrelevant .
any ambitious literary project will usually require the channelling of deep thoughts, the exploration of vivid nuances in meaning, the creation of enthralling atmosphere evoked by just the right choice of words. one might intuitively assume that those requirements can be met in a sufficiently and sophisticatedly enough manner only through the natural flow of words bestowed upon you by the language (s) acquired early in your childhood — your native tongue (s). although the joys of text optimisation are not per se limited to your native language, some of the above - mentioned procedures and necessities will be harder to implement when performed in your secondary language. obviously my experience with language as a professional tool has for the largest part been achieved in and regarding german. arguably, i should be thankful for my extensive experience in this field and put it to good use. an yet: i have chosen a different path .
admittedly, the inevitable use of a dictionary, the dependency on a trusted native speaker, insecurities and frustration in the face of ones limited proficiency (especially when being pointed at yet another unnaturally sounding choice of words; at yet another flaw in one’s syntax), the admiration towards people with a native multilingual background — all that can make you feel way inferior a member of the language community of your choosing. in fact, in my case, the feeling of inferior skills made — or should i rather say, has made — me feel so anxious about this question that it repeatedly kept me from proceeding with the writing process altogether — for the past six years of my life. i was, and still am at the time of this very writing, afraid that i might be fooling myself into believing i could pull off a literary project in english. painfully aware of my insufficiencies compared, not only to native speakers, but also to non - native ones who are immersed in the english language through their living in, say, britain, i did not feel comfortable in the prospect of putting energy into something that would be meant to fail right from the beginning because of my insufficient language skills. true, english is spoken everywhere in berlin, all the time; but unfortunately, that does necessarily include the use of naturally sounding grammar, or even vocabulary. hence, using the english language on a daily basis can, within this wibbly wobbly sphere of exophonic pragmatism, can potentially damage one’s proficiency rather than increase it. after all, there’s only so many brits in berlin, only so much life on mars to escape to .
so, when my focus should obviously be transposing above - outlined ideas successfully, why is it that i opt to willingly embrace struggling with a grammar that will remain forever foreign and with a vernacular that will inevitably keep leading to ever - so - odd choices of words, weird collocations, and syntactic peculiarities ³? why would i dismiss the promise of a natural flow of words within the safe harbour of native eloquence so easily, in exchange for a creative product writ in every other sentence of which will be an odd reminder that it must undoubtedly have been produced by a foreigner .
“you weave with it so effortlessly, one cant help but be pulled in. it’s not only how you write though that strikes me as surprising but with what ease you convey that sense of pure sci - fi. ” — a statement similar to this one (uttered as a reaction to my german - language (back -) translation of some early draft material) will most likely never be written about my english - language prose. my words will not always be well - chosen, they will — regularly rather than occasionally — turn out convoluted, and my syntax will most likely keep that odd german feel for all eternity .
when being asked for advice regarding the conundrum that i had created around the whole english - versus - german question, a native english - language friend of mine suggested i should regard english as a tool which i could access inspiration and information with that otherwise would have been walled off by my german ‘circuitry’. by contrast, another friend encouraged me to do the concepting, outlines and snippets in english, yet to fill any atmospheric gaps in my mother tongue until i would eventually get to work through the material with an english - language editor .
my initial reaction to both the research and the advice i had accumulated was wise, if short - lived. after above - mentioned excitement of my multilingual, close - to - native - level german - language friend about the extend to which i was able to take command of the german language, i experienced an epiphany that made me, or so i felt, reach a decision: it would be wisest to be doing it in german, because that meant no more doubts, no anxiety, and no more unnecessary writer’s block. i had realised that my insisting on english as a creative means of expressing myself had in fact simply been my ego talking. now that i had analysed what would be most efficient in order to achieve the best possible result for this project, german undoubtedly seemed to be the right choice. i felt inspired, and i was grateful for everyone’s part in the decision - making process. there were no two points about it .
yet, here i am, almost 2, 000 words into an article explaining to you and to myself the rationale behind my ultimately choosing ‪‎english‬ over ‎german‬ .
unfortunately for future readers of my literary outpourings, aspects more powerful than the reasoning behind my supposed wisdom turned out to be playing into my aversion behaviour against the use of german. for instance, a sceptic approach towards society in general — which in turn implies: a tongue by any other name would taste as bad. tough luck, thou “language of schiller and kant, merkel and schwarzenegger” ⁴. poetic justice, though, in the face of the frustration that derives from no one ever getting my doctor who references in germany .
an approach that really clicked with me is the one demonstrated in the following quote by czech - german - english - canadian author dan vyleta ⁵, whose books have gathered wide international acclaim: „the answer is that english is my own, never mind when i acquired it. that i chose it the way one chooses a spouse, which is to say i fell in love with it. i wrote my first cheque in english; met my life’s companion in english. i can no longer remember a day when i did not think, and dream, in english. there was never a question in my mind that i would write my books in anything else. “ ⁶
now, in stark contrast to vyleta, i lack both the ability to express myself as sophisticatedly in english as i would be able in german, and the experience in crafting a piece of literature. but, as surprising as this may sound, at these early steps i see this as an advantage — not over vyleta, obviously, but over an hypothetical, ever - so - experienced parallel - universe me. for with my self - assuredness about my command of the german language has come a feeling of routine. a routine that has brought me to me point at which, at least for now, i cannot for the life of it seem to find any motivation in the prospect of crafting a fictional piece in the tongue that is supposed to be my first language .
the way i see it, it all comes down to where one’s personal goals and priorities lie. in my case, as i have implicitly stated in the passage above, i do no longer have the ambition to prove to myself or the german - speaking community my decently skilful conduct of the german language. quite the contrary, there are some linguistic problems i do not even wish to bother with. grammatical gender, for instance — a concept that, thankfully, the english language got rid of almost a millennium ago ⁷. i do not want to sound too escapist though; in everyday conversation i still play my proactive part in the evolution of my mother tongue by, say, using the nominalised present participle (gerund) instead of explicitly male or female forms⁸. the problem is, however, that german speakers are far from reaching any consensus whatsoever about its usage, and i am, quite frankly, fed up with discussing it. maybe the passion i used to have for the fate and future of the german language has left me — for good ?
the vast majority of inspirational resources i have been influenced by gets novelised ⁹, reported ¹⁰, tweeted ¹¹, recorded ¹², or otherwise produced ¹³ in english. so when i choose to write in english rather than in my native language, i am also seeking to act out on my creativity in the very language that has sparked by imagination in the first place .
for better or worse, as someone with a sometimes decent, sometimes not - so - decent command of the english language, i consciously choose to write my novel in this second language of mine rather than in my mother tongue. if that challenge is what keeps my imagination network active ¹⁴, and if my goal is to transpose my ideas in a readable manner: then it seems i have got my work cut out for me .
even if i fail, the very process can be a first step in slowly, but (hopefully) surely developing a style that i can truly call my own. for example: as much as i abhor the use of nominalisations that is widely spread among native german speakers, curiously enough, i myself love playing with them in english. similarly, whereas i frequently advise against the use of high - faluting loanwords in my native language, in english anything derived from latin and ancient greek is what makes my linguist heart geek out. will it stay like this, will my choice of words in time become more natural ?
whether german happens to be your native language, but the time spent in an english - language environment is what sparks your imagination; whether you were born in japan, but you find german more suitable to express your creativity ¹⁵. in a world that is becoming more and more culturally incoherent, i would like to make a case against limiting our creative output to the borders of nations or language that we happened to be born in. sure, we could easily stick to our native languages, which we have mastered to an extend that can fool us into thinking we basically own them. we can focus on the development of characters and storylines in lieu of continuously worrying about a lack of native - level language proficiency .
personally though, i would rather take my chances and strive for an immediate connection with an audience who share my curiosity for the unconventional, who are able to connect to my ideas, no matter where on this planet they live — without having to rely on the vague hope that my german - language text might at some point get translated out of my native tongue. i do not envy the editors that will at some point have to deal with my syntactic oddities and my collocational peculiarities. i can only hope they will do so as forgivingly as, in my wishful thinking, any future readers of my purple prose .
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> program (by random) program (not in order) & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; shinohara makoto: string quartet (2016) [ world premiere ] & lt; br / & gt; makoto shinohara: string quartet (2016) world premiere & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; shinohara makoto: evolution [ progress ] (1986) & lt; br / & gt; makoto shinohara: evolution (1986) lotuses (1992): jonathan harvey & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; jonathan harvey: lotuses (1992) & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; mark and andre: in... (2003 )
japan premiere ] & lt; br / & gt; mark andre: in... (2003) japanese premiere & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; luigi nono: filled with anguish, while also a serene waves. (1975 - 77) & lt; br / & gt; luigi nono: ... sofferte onde serene... (1975 - 77) and & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; clara janotta: il colore dell' ombra (2010) [ japan premiere ] & lt; br / & gt; clara iannotta: il colore dell' ombra (2010) japanese premiere & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; francisco c... - goldschmidt mitt: ... te pierdes y te hundes. (2013 - 16) [ japan premiere ] & lt; br / & gt; francisco c. goldschmidt: ... te pierdes y te hundes. (2013 - 16) japanese premiere & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt;
exophony is the practice of ( normally creative ) writing in a language that is not one 's mother tongue . some exophonic authors may be bilingual or multilingual from their childhood years , even polyglots , while others may write in an acquired language . in some cases the second language is acquired early in life , for example through immigration , and it is not always clear whether the writer should strictly be classed a non-native speaker . in other cases , the language is acquired through exile or migration : " exophonic writing , the phenomenon of writing literature in a second language , is increasing across europe due to labour migration " . it is one form of transnational literature , although the latter also encompasses writing that crosses national stylistic or cultural boundaries without being written in another language . " extraterritoriality and exophony are indeed important notions , not only for comparative literature but in general for the question of the status of the literary text [ of ] the 21st century " . it also overlaps with translingualism , and translingualist writer is one of many terms that has been coined to describe the phenomenon . related concepts in english include transculturalism/transculturation , axial writing , postnationalism and postcolonialism , and in german , exophonie , anders-sprachigkeit , interkulturelle literatur ( ' intercultural literature ' ) , gastarbeiterliteratur ( ' guest worker literature ' ) , ausländerliteratur ( ' foreigner literature ' ) and migrantenliteratur ( ' migrant literature ' ) . motivations for becoming an exophonic writer may be manifold : to make a political statement ( for example , yoko tawada attempted " to produce exophony both in her mother tongue ( japanese ) and her acquired tongue ( german ) [ ... ] to dismantle [ ... ] the ultranationalistic concept of a ' beautiful ' japanese language " ) , to adopt/avoid stylistic elements of particular languages ( " for tawada , a native speaker of a language whose grammar makes no distinctions of gender , case , definite and indefinite articles , or singular and plural [ ... ] each western word , phrase or idiom becomes a conundrum " , " i grope for some unlikely expression in my native language , trying to find the proper equivalence in translation for an english word or phrase " ) , to evade the risk of being lost in translation , or to gain a wider readership - translated literature in the uk and us accounts for only a small percentage of sales , so " it makes commercial sense " . some exophonic authors are also translators , including ( in some cases ) of their own works . conversely , translation of exophonic works can present problems due to the " defamiliarisation of the new language through stylistic innovation " . 
exophony is the practice of (normally creative) writing in a language that is not one's mother tongue. some exophonic authors may be bilingual or multilingual from their childhood years, even polyglots, while others may write in an acquired language. in some cases the second language is acquired early in life, for example through immigration, and it is not always clear whether the writer should strictly be classed a non-native speaker. in other cases, the language is acquired through exile or migration: " exophonic writing, the phenomenon of writing literature in a second language, is increasing across europe due to labour migration ". it is one form of transnational literature, although the latter also encompasses writing that crosses national stylistic or cultural boundaries without being written in another language. " extraterritoriality and exophony are indeed important notions, not only for comparative literature but in general for the question of the status of the literary text [ of ] the 21st century ". it also overlaps with translingualism, and translingualist writer is one of many terms that has been coined to describe the phenomenon. related concepts in english include transculturalism/transculturation, axial writing, postnationalism and postcolonialism, and in german, exophonie, anders-sprachigkeit, interkulturelle literatur (' intercultural literature'), gastarbeiterliteratur (' guest worker literature'), ausländerliteratur (' foreigner literature') and migrantenliteratur (' migrant literature'). motivations for becoming an exophonic writer may be manifold: to make a political statement (for example, yoko tawada attempted " to produce exophony both in her mother tongue (japanese) and her acquired tongue (german) [... ] to dismantle [... ] the ultranationalistic concept of a' beautiful' japanese language "), to adopt/avoid stylistic elements of particular languages (" for tawada, a native speaker of a language whose grammar makes no distinctions of gender, case, definite and indefinite articles, or singular and plural [... ] each western word, phrase or idiom becomes a conundrum ", " i grope for some unlikely expression in my native language, trying to find the proper equivalence in translation for an english word or phrase "), to evade the risk of being lost in translation, or to gain a wider readership - translated literature in the uk and us accounts for only a small percentage of sales, so " it makes commercial sense ". some exophonic authors are also translators, including (in some cases) of their own works. conversely, translation of exophonic works can present problems due to the " defamiliarisation of the new language through stylistic innovation ".
exophony is the practice of (normally creative) writing in a language that is not one's mother tongue. some exophonic authors may be bilingual or multilingual from their childhood years, even polyglots, while others may write in an acquired language. in some cases the second language is acquired early in life, for example through immigration, and it is not always clear whether the writer should strictly be classed a non-native speaker. in other cases, the language is acquired through exile or migration: " exophonic writing, the phenomenon of writing literature in a second language, is increasing across europe due to labour migration ". it is one form of transnational literature, although the latter also encompasses writing that crosses national stylistic or cultural boundaries without being written in another language. " extraterritoriality and exophony are indeed important notions, not only for comparative literature but in general for the question of the status of the literary text [ of ] the 21st century ". it also overlaps with translingualism, and translingualist writer is one of many terms that has been coined to describe the phenomenon. related concepts in english include transculturalism/transculturation, axial writing, postnationalism and postcolonialism, and in german, exophonie, anders-sprachigkeit, interkulturelle literatur (' intercultural literature'), gastarbeiterliteratur (' guest worker literature'), ausländerliteratur (' foreigner literature') and migrantenliteratur (' migrant literature'). motivations for becoming an exophonic writer may be manifold: to make a political statement (for example, yoko tawada attempted " to produce exophony both in her mother tongue (japanese) and her acquired tongue (german) [... ] to dismantle [... ] the ultranationalistic concept of a' beautiful' japanese language "), to adopt/avoid stylistic elements of particular languages (" for tawada, a native speaker of a language whose grammar makes no distinctions of gender, case, definite and indefinite articles, or singular and plural [... ] each western word, phrase or idiom becomes a conundrum ", " i grope for some unlikely expression in my native language, trying to find the proper equivalence in translation for an english word or phrase "), to evade the risk of being lost in translation, or to gain a wider readership - translated literature in the uk and us accounts for only a small percentage of sales, so " it makes commercial sense ". some exophonic authors are also translators, including (in some cases) of their own works. conversely, translation of exophonic works can present problems due to the " defamiliarisation of the new language through stylistic innovation ".