Beyond the Mother Tongue

The Postmonolingual Condition

Yasemin Yildiz

• Publisher: Modern Language Initiative
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780823255764
• Subtopic: German Literary Criticism

Beyond the Mother Tongue examines distinct forms of multilingualism, such as writing in one socially unsanctioned "mother tongue" about another language (Franz Kafka); mobilizing words of foreign derivation as part of a multilingual constellation within one language (Theodor W. Adorno); producing an oeuvre in two separate languages simultaneously (Yoko Tawada); and mixing different languages, codes, and registers within one text (Feridun Zaimoglu).

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Beyond the Mother Tongue? Multilingual Practices and the Monolingual Paradigm
• 1. The Uncanny Mother Tongue: Monolingualism and Jewishness in Franz Kafka
• 2. The Foreign in the Mother Tongue: Words of Foreign Derivation and Utopia in Theodor W. Adorno
• 3. Detaching from the Mother Tongue: Bilingualism and Liberation in Yoko Tawada
• 4. Surviving the Mother Tongue: Literal Translation and Trauma in Emine Sevgi Özdamar
• 5. Inventing a Motherless Tongue: Mixed Language and Masculinity in Feridun Zaimoğlu
• Conclusion: Toward a Multilingual Paradigm? The Disaggregated Mother Tongue
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index