The Antinomy of Multilingual US Literature

Bibliographic Data

ID3852230
AuthorsBrian Lennon (0000-0002-5577-3364, Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume6
Issue3
Pages203-224
Publication date2008-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative American Studies An International Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1477-5700 • E-ISSN: 1741-2676
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/147757008x330203
OpenAlexW2020563917
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited47

After September 2001, among other effects that may or may not have been foreseen, the new direction of US national political imperatives revived support for foreign language learning as a component of human or cultural intelligence. Across the political spectrum, competence in languages other than English is now acknowledged as a serious weakness of educational, economic, and military resources in the United States. In the critical study of contemporary literature, the multilingual spirit of this new emphasis collides with the monolingual letter of the publication industry that produces books. In the production of research objects for scholars of contemporary literature, language difference, the ground zero of multiple language acquisition, is displaced by translative representation of language difference. To the extent that scholars understand themselves as analysts of already given objects, regarding intervention in the process of literary production as beyond their practical or desired ability, the premium placed on language difference here is insufficiently theorized.Keywords: MULTILINGUALISMTRANSLATIONLITERATURE Additional informationNotes on contributorsBrian LennonBrian Lennon is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA. His current book project, a study of literary multilingualism entitled In Babel’s Shadow: Lives of Literature, is under contract to the University of Minnesota Press

Antinomy · Epistemology · Latin American and Latino Studies · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub