Beyond the mother tongue

Language as cultural capital in Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12701902
AutoresLéa Sinoimeri (University of Paris, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume21
Fascículo6
Páginas734-748
Data de publicação2021-10-13
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguage and Intercultural Communication (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1470-8477 • E-ISSN: 1747-759X
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14708477.2021.1983582
OpenAlexW3206319882
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas26

The paper investigates multilingual aesthetics in Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007). It argues that the novel refuses and undermines the family romance of the mother tongue by grounding its experimental form and language in Western poststructuralist theory. Yet, the text fictionalises the encounter with the other language as a love story, a fatal romance of conquest and profound metamorphosis thus revealing the complex status of English as cultural capital. As it exhibits multilingual strategies, the book also displays an elite cosmopolitism based on European literary canonical works that reinforces rather than discards monolingual ides of language and literature

Art · CONQUEST · Cultural capital · Elite · First language · German · Linguistics · Literature · Romance · Sociology · Gender Studies in Language · History · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Translation Studies and Practices