Lost and found in translation : contemporary ethnic American writing and the politics of language diversity / Martha J. Cutter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cutter, Martha J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Minority authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Minority authors.

Language and languages--Political aspects--United States.

Language and languages.

Minorities--United States--Intellectual life.

Minorities.

Language and languages--Political aspects.

United States.

Intellectual life.

Cultural pluralism in literature.

Ethnic relations in literature.

Ethnic groups in literature.

United States--Languages.

Minorities in literature.

Ethnicity in literature.

Physical Description:

viii, 326 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2005]

Summary:

Starting with Salman Rushdie's assertion that even though something is always lost in translation, something can always be gained, Martha Cutter examines the trope of translation in twenty English-language novels and autobiographies by contemporary ethnic American writers. She argues that these works advocate a politics of language diversity-a literary and social agenda that validates the multiplicity of ethnic cultures and tongues in the United States.

Cutter studies works by Asian American, Native American, African American, and Mexican American authors. She argues that translation between cultures, languages, and dialects creates a new language that, in its diversity, constitutes the true heritage of the United States. Through the metaphor of translation, Cutter demonstrates, writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Sherman Alexie, Toni Morrison, and Richard Rodriguez establish a place within American society for the many languages spoken by multiethnic and multicultural individuals.

Cutter concludes with an analysis of contemporary debates over language policy, such as English-only legislation, the recognition of Ebonics, and the growing acceptance of bilingualism. The focus on translation by so many multiethnic writers, she contends, offers hope in our post-modern culture for a new condition in which creatively fused languages renovate the communications of the dominant society and create new kinds of identity for multicultural individuals.

Contents:

An impossible necessity : translation and the re-creation of linguistic and cultural identities in the works of David Wong Louie, Fae Myenne Ng, and Maxine Hong Kingston

Finding a "home" in translation : John Okada's No-no boy and Cynthia Kadohata's The floating world

Translation as revelation : the task of the translator in the fiction of N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Susan Power, and Sherman Alexie

Learnin

and not learnin

to speak the King's English : intralingual translation in the fiction of Toni Morrison, Danzy Senna, Sherley Anne Williams, and A.J. Verdelle

The reader as translator : interlingual voice in the writing of Richard Rodriguez, Nash Candelaria, Cherríe Moraga, and Abelardo Delgado

Cultural translation and multilingualism in and out of textual worlds.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [281]-303) and index.

ISBN:

0807829773

0807856371

OCLC:

60651073