A Conversation with Elske Schotanus

A Conversation with Elske Schotanus Peter Constantine lske Schotanus (www.elskeschotanus.nl) is a vital voice in European literature,a F J Dutch author who writes in Frisian, a minority language thatachieved official status in the Netherlands in 1956.Along with Europe's doz ens ofother minority languages?Ingrian, Adyghe, Arvanitika, Karaim, Sk?nsk, Meglenitic?Frisian isbattling theonslaught of linguisticglobalization that is leading to a shrinkingbiodiversity in the world's languages. Few of these languages have a contemporary literatureas vibrant as Frisian. A painter, novelist, short-story writer, literarycritic, editor, and publisher, Schotanus has used her considerable influence to further Frisian language and literature.In 2002 she established with Eeltsje Hettinga theCepher Foundation, which publishes and promotes Frisian writing. She was an editor at Kistwurk and is a founding editor of Go-gol, an online literary magazine (http://go-gol.nl/home). In 2004 ner book of short stories It griisstiennen (Gray stones)was published byUtjouwerij Venus, and in 2007 her novel Skrikwas published by Utjouwerij Frysl?n. Schotanus isa criticand essay ist for theFrisian culturalmagazine De Moanne / Trotwaerand is active in theFrisian literaryasso ciation ItSkriuwersboun, where she directs Project Skriuw,which assists new Frisianwriters in their literary efforts. 20 i World Literature Today Peter Constantine: You're Dutch, but you are a Frisian author. How do you see yourself? Elske Schotanus: Well, I am Dutch, but I'm not a Dutch author. I'm a short-story writer and have also written a novel, all inFrisian. It'smy mother tongue. But at some point I lost the language I grew up in.At school I spoke Dutch, my friends were Dutch, my colleagues were Dutch, I even brought up my children inDutch. The only times I spoke Frisian were when I was visiting my parents, and every so often Iwould scold and swear in my native language. In 2001 my father was diagnosed with cancer, and I began writing a diary in a kind of phonetic Frisian. I can speak itbut, like a lotof Frisians, never learned towrite it, so I got a spell-check, some grammar books, and a dictionary and started rediscovering the memmetaal, themother tongue. During thisperi od I got in touchwith Eeltsje Hettinga, a former journalistwho writes poetry and was the editor of the Frisian literary magazine Kistwurk,which also had an online version. We corresponded by e-mail forabout half a year, at firstinDutch, then after a few e-mails we switched to Frisian, and itwas through thisdigital contact that I learned to look at theworld in a differentway. At the time Iwas working in a psychiatric hospital, and though I had written some articles for its staff magazine, it was through the correspondence with Hettinga that I began to turndaily experi ences intowords. So I didn't just say that "I drove towork," but discovered that describing a dull trip in fulldetail could make itan exciting adventure. Besides that, I started doing editorial work forKistwurk and after a while began writ ing reviews for them. So I didn't plan to be an author. Itwas the e-mail exchange and editorial work that sparked the process ofmy becoming a writer. PC: Your novel Skrik,which was published in 2007, is amasterpiece of style and linguistic cre ativity.You play exciting Joyceanword games? "vimverjend en timperjend," "Copyright. Kopple wrong." Do you see yourself as an innovator in Frisian literatureand language? ES: The spoken language holds some important keys. Frisian is a melodious tongue. We have many words with diphthongs and even "triph thongs"?leauwe (believe), kreauwe (quarrel), skri uwe (write). Also, Frisian is earthier and more resonant thanDutch. An author is handed these sounds on a silver platter,which iswhy I prefer touse Frisian asmy literary language rather than Dutch. Imight prefer the sound of Spanish to the sound of Swiss German?regardless ofwhat those sounds might be expressing?and yet one cannot argue that one language is more beauti ful ormore appealing than the other.And there is of course wordplay. Pimperje and timperjeare Frisian words, both ofwhich mean "tingle," as in the tinglingofCoca Cola, the tinglingof the little bubbles of carbon dioxide that fizz through your head: not a painful sensation, but

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