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Speaking of Babel: The Risks and Rewards of Writing about Polyglot Societies

Speaking of Babel: The Risks and Rewards of Writing about Polyglot Societies Common as it is to map languages as colored patches of a global quilt, this article proposes an understanding of language, dialect, and multilingualism beyond territoriality. The author references different regions where multilingualism and registers of discourse are indices not so much of mastery, but of pragmatics. With examples drawn from his own works The Shadow Lines and The Hungry Tide, the author ultimately questions the linguistic determinism of national literary paradigms. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

Speaking of Babel: The Risks and Rewards of Writing about Polyglot Societies

Ghosh, Amitav
Comparative Literature , Volume 72 (3) – Sep 1, 2020
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Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by Amitav Ghosh
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/00104124-8255328
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Common as it is to map languages as colored patches of a global quilt, this article proposes an understanding of language, dialect, and multilingualism beyond territoriality. The author references different regions where multilingualism and registers of discourse are indices not so much of mastery, but of pragmatics. With examples drawn from his own works The Shadow Lines and The Hungry Tide, the author ultimately questions the linguistic determinism of national literary paradigms.

Journal

Comparative Literature – Duke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2020

References

  • English in Asia, Asian Englishes, and the Issue of Proficiency
    Bolton, Kingsley
  • The Measurement of Linguistic Diversity
    Greenberg, Joseph H.
  • Meet the American Who Translates Some of India’s Finest Hindi Writers into English
    Gupta, Trisha
  • The Linguistic Survey of India: Perspectives on Language Use
    Pandit, Prabodh B. Ohannessian, Sirarpi Ferguson, Charles A. Polomé, Edgar C.
  • History and Biology in the Anthropocene: Problems of Scale, Problems of Value
    Thomas, Julia Adeney
  • English in Asia, Asian Englishes, and the Issue of Proficiency
    Bolton, Kingsley
  • The Measurement of Linguistic Diversity
    Greenberg, Joseph H.
  • Meet the American Who Translates Some of India’s Finest Hindi Writers into English
    Gupta, Trisha
  • The Linguistic Survey of India: Perspectives on Language Use
    Pandit, Prabodh B. Ohannessian, Sirarpi Ferguson, Charles A. Polomé, Edgar C.
  • History and Biology in the Anthropocene: Problems of Scale, Problems of Value
    Thomas, Julia Adeney