Minor Literature and the Translation of the (M)other
Multilingualism and Gender in Najat El Hachmi’s La filla estrangera and Chika Unigwe’s Night Dancer
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18965745 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Núria Codina Solà (0000-0003-4909-9059, English Literature, University of Leuven, Belgium, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 498-515 |
| Publication date | 2022-05-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Interventions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1369-801X • E-ISSN: 1469-929X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1369801x.2021.1885464 |
| OpenAlex | W3134576454 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 27 |
This essay argues that the notion of minor literature, so far conceived as a linguistic category, needs to be understood in broader, relational terms. The essay proposes a definition that takes into account the material conditions of literary production. It situates the political contestation inherent to minor literature not only in the choice and use of language, but also in the process of representation itself. Minor literature registers the disparities surrounding literacy and linguistic fluency and binds them into social realities: while laying bare the linguistic and material privileges that sustain the literary and stretching the text’s mimetic potential towards its limits, it uses the distance that separates the text from the world to evoke minorities. My readings of “La filla estrangera” by the Catalan-Amazigh writer Najat El Hachmi and “Night Dancer” by the Igbo-Flemish-American author Chika Unigwe put this relational, material understanding of minor literature to the test. The novels attend to the ways in which our discursive practices render certain languages and identities marginal. Leaning on the notion of translation, the essay shows how this powerful articulation of otherness is necessarily constrained by the gap between what is represented (the subaltern, the oral, the multilingual, the illiterate) and how it can be represented (the written text, the vehicular language)
Flemish · Fluency · Humanities · Igbo · Linguistics · Literacy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subaltern · Cultural Identity and Heritage · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies · Philosophy
Born Translated
Forget English!
The Translation Studies Reader
Gender in Translation
What Is World Literature?
The Translator's Voice in Translated Narrative
In the Shadow of World Literature
At the Margins of the Minor
The African Palimpsest
Writing Africa in Belgium, Europe
Can the Subaltern Be Heard
Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory
On Not Knowing
Literature and Amazigh language debates
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |