Cultural mediation through translingual narrative

Rita WilsonMonash University

Translingual writers in attempting to navigate between languages and the as-sociated social contexts bring both linguistic and cultural translation into play as processes fostering encounter and transformation This paper considers the thematic function of translation within recent translingual narrative where it appears both as a literary topos and as an ideological subtext It attempts to il-lustrate how contrary to postcolonial writers whose narratives self-consciously engage with their own linguistic or cultural hybridity by thematizing the power relationships between different linguistic strands the narratives of transnationaltranslingual writers explore new identities by constructing new dialogic spaces in which language choice is located outside the oppositional model set up by the traditional binaries of postcolonial theorizing Through a reading of the work of Amara Lakhous a contemporary Italian writer born and educated in Algiers and writing in both Arabic and Italian it is argued that translingual works sug-gest an understanding of translation as not only something that happens after the story ends but is a crucial part of the narrative itself one that generates plot and meaning and is indispensable to an understanding of the concrete processes of cultural translation that shape relationships identities and interactions globally

Roots are forms of narration literary and cultural constructs mediated for-mations providing routes through the world (Chambers 2002)

1 Introduction

Edwin Gentzlerrsquos study of translation and the formation of cultural identities in the Americas points to ldquoborder writingrdquo as a form of writing in which ldquolanguages are in constant flux [hellip] lsquonativersquo language is almost an oxymoron and transla-tional identity is a givenrdquo (2008 165) This paper takes as its point of departure the notion that a ldquotranslational identityrdquo is fundamental to a body of narratives lately

Target 232 (2011) 235ndash250 doi 101075target23205wilissn 0924ndash1884 e-issn 1569ndash9986 copy John Benjamins Publishing Company

236 Rita Wilson

appearing in great numbers on the European literary scene written by authors who have been variously described as ldquomigrantrdquo ldquodiasporicrdquo and more recently ldquotransnationalrdquo (Seyhan 2001) and who are also variously referred to as multi het-ero- poly- or translingual writers1

The concepts of translated identities and cultures have been addressed by nu-merous well-known theorists in postcolonial literary and cultural studies Fran-ccediloise Lionnet Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Niranjana Tejaswini for example have all emphasized the necessity for readers and writers to demonstrate linguistic flexibility in order to contend with the polyphonic qualities of texts that construct hybrid identities2 While the work of these theorists constitutes an important basis for studies on the challenges faced by those who belong to ethnolinguistic minori-ties and choose to write in a language other than their mother tongue it needs to be recognized that their research is firmly located within the discourse of postco-lonialism is concerned with the framework through which we perceive relations of power and of alterity and tends to focus on the relationship of the language(s) to the dominant structures of power

In contrast the discourse on ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo3 highlights the dialec-tic between the local and the global which produces cultural heterogeneity (Ap-padurai 1996) and revolves around notions of ldquohybridityrdquo and the translation of cultures through the spatial displacement of people Of particular interest to this paper is Homi K Bhabharsquos identification of the location of cultures in the global-ization age at the intersection of the transnational and the translational (1994) The transnational manifests itself in

specific histories of cultural displacement whether they are the ldquomiddle passagerdquo of slavery and indenture the ldquovoyage outrdquo of the civilizing mission the fraught accommodation of Third World migration to the West after the Second World War or the traffic of economic and political refugees within and outside the Third World (1994 247)

The translational describes the complex process of cultural signification produced under the impact of such displacements migrations relocations and diasporas and the unprecedented development of transnational electronic communications and media systems

Although criticized for its lack of specificity4 Bhabharsquos concept of ldquocultural trans-lationrdquo has formed the basis for much contemporary debate in translation studies since the so-called ldquopostcolonial turnrdquo in the late 1990s (Bassnett and Trivedi 1999 Tymoczko 2003 Cronin 2006 72 Batchelor 2009 250ndash253 Pym 2010 143ndash148 Si-mon and St-Pierre 2000 Hermans 2006) Drawing on Derridarsquos notion of ldquodisseacutemina-tionrdquo Bhabha coins the term ldquoDissemiNationrdquo to tackle the question of ldquonationnessrdquo as a grand narrative of identity and difference and of translation as the in-between

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 237

frontier space where migrant and minority identities are found (1994 199ndash244) For Bhabha the power of translation lies in ldquothe performative nature of cultural commu-nicationrdquo (1994 326) and the focus of attention is on the position of the translator as it intersects with the construction of national identities and the material movement of peoples To put it differently Bhabharsquos notion of translation does not seek to re-inforce previously established borders (as commonly represented by the notions of source textculture and target textculture) but instead to rethink translation from the border (Mignolo 2000) This leads to a new concept of translation in contempo-rary theoretical discourse which assumes a broader definition that goes beyond the interlingual passage and rather encompasses the multiple aspects of ldquotransnational and transcultural encountersrdquo at the base of our global culture (Bandia 2009 1) It is in this sense that Bhabharsquos cultural translation becomes as Anthony Pym argues ldquoa way of talking about the worldrdquo (2010 148) In this regard even if the ambiguity that characterizes Bhabharsquos use of cultural translation ultimately downplays the validity of the concept for translation studies the connection it creates between translation ldquonationnessrdquo and migration apropos of contemporary cultural dynamics including the production and reception of translingual narratives should not be overlooked

2 Locating transnationaltranslingual narratives

Marked by those ldquomultiple deterritorializations of languagerdquo that Deleuze and Guattari find in ldquominor literaturesrdquo (1986 19) translingual narratives transform literary and cultural discourse not only by relocating it on cultural margins and by foregrounding intercultural dialogue and translation but also by drawing dis-crete literary traditions into contact5 Such narratives doubly manifest that par-ticularly ldquopalpablerdquo heterogeneity that Itamar Even-Zohar finds in ldquobi- or multilin-gualrdquo societies manifested ldquowithin the realm of literature [hellip] in a situation where a community possesses two (or more) literary systems two literatures as it wererdquo one of which is typically ignored by scholarship (1990 12)

Contrary to postcolonial writers whose narratives self-consciously engage with their own linguistic meacutetissage andor cultural hybridity by explicitly thema-tizing the power relationships between different linguistic strands the narratives of transnationaltranslingual writers explore new identities by constructing new dialogic spaces in which language choice is located outside the oppositional model set up by the traditional binaries of postcolonial theorizing centremargin selfother colonisercolonized Their position is encapsulated in the works of a con-temporary Italian writer born and raised in Algiers and fluent in Arabic Berber and French Amara Lakhous In his words

238 Rita Wilson

There is a whole discourse on the politicization of French by Algerian writers themselves and there is a certain use of nationalism that bothers me mdash so I extricate myself from this For me French is not even a ldquospoil of warrdquo as Kateb Ya-cine said that is still the colonial context it belongs to that generation I belong to another generation For me French is a language like any other Thanks to French I discovered Flaubert who is for me one of the most important writers It is a language like other languages In my case I prefer Italian to French for aesthetic and creative reasons and also to extricate myself from this postcolonial discourse (cited in Esposito 2011 4)

While not necessarily an entirely new form of cultural response to (neo)colonial pressures the predominant response of writers like Lakhous to specific texts styles and motifs of metropolitan literatures is through parody pastiche irony mimicry and similar literary techniques

In my opinion Amara Lakhous is exemplary of a new generation of transling-ual writers in whose work the thematization of cultural translation mdash conceptual-ized as a process of intercultural encounter that reshapes thoughts by ldquotranslatingrdquo them between cultures mdash serves as a vehicle for disrupting the truth value of the dominant lsquonationalrsquo discourse Written in both Italian and Arabic his work lays emphasis on the concept of language as both ldquohomerdquo and simultaneously a ldquotrans-lated spacerdquo what Iain Chambers calls ldquoa site of transit and differencerdquo suggesting ldquothat a diverse sense of identity might begin to be acknowledged here Land and locality mdash onerdquos roots as it were mdash are not canceled rather they are reworked in the translating medium of languagersquo (2002 29)

3 From roots to routes

Lakhousrsquo first novel was written in Arabic and published in Algiers in 1999 It was also published in Italy in the same year in a bilingual edition Le cimici e il pirata (ldquoBedbugs and the Piraterdquo) This is a double text in more than one sense not only does it straddle two worlds and two quite distant cultures but it also concretely represents the notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text that can be fully decoded only by the bilingual reader conversant in both cultures and traditions and whose reading can therefore be ldquonone but a perpetual translationrdquo (Mehrez 1998 122ndash124) In effect this bilingual edition constructs a privileged space where double linguistic and cultural palimpsests create an intricate relational model between two worlds The double palimpsest mdash horizontally from language to language and vertically from oral tales to text mdash destabilizes meaning and deterritorializes both source and tar-get language while simultaneously reterritorializing them through the ldquomirroringrdquo effect of a bilingual edition This is a process akin to what Ioanna Chatzidimitriou

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 239

has described as a ldquominorizationrdquo process in which the ldquohost bodyrdquo undergoes ldquoa dehistoricization of sorts rendering [hellip] the palimpsest of its potentialities visible and allowing its signifying pluralities to take shape and subsequently assign form to novel historical associationsrdquo (2009 23ndash24)

The original Arabic version of Cimici begins at what for an Italian reader would be the lsquobackrsquo of the book Both the Italian version translated by Francesco Leg-gio and the Arabic version end in the lsquomiddlersquo of the book Thus the space of the translingual writerrsquos in-betweenness materializes in Cimici not only as the obvious division separating the two texts but most importantly as a process of displacement both vertically (from oral story-telling to text) and horizontally (Arabic to Italian) The lsquomeeting in the middlersquo of the two texts is a useful metaphoric construct to bear in mind when considering the mediation at work in Amara Lakhousrsquo second novel Also originally written in Arabic it was released in 2003 in Algeria with the title Kayfa tardalsquou min al-dhirsquoba dūna an talsquoadaka (lsquoHow to be suckled by the she-wolf without getting bittenrsquo) The novel was later re-written in Italian and re-titled Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio) Lakhous emphasises the fact that the Italian version is not lsquosimplyrsquo a translation but an act of re-writing that transcends the limitations of linguistic precision while validating linguistic choices that mimic the voices of the characters

Prima scrivo il mio testo in arabo Poi dico che lo riscrivo in italiano percheacute non si tratta di una semplice auto-traduzione non essendo obbligato a rispettare il testo originale lo ricreo a mio piacimento In tal senso godo di una libertagrave che il tradut-tore normalmente non ha [hellip] Cerco di usare il napoletano il milanese a seconda del linguaggio che usano i diversi personaggi (Lakhous 2005 np)

First I write my text in Arabic Then I say that I re-write it in Italian because it is not simply a case of self-translation as I am not obliged to respect the original text I re-create it as I wish In that sense I enjoy more freedom than a translator normally has [hellip] I try to use Neapolitan or Milanese according to how the dif-ferent characters would use language (Lakhous 2005 my translation)

Further by inscribing within written Italian the trace of oral Arabic Lakhous cre-ates a double palimpsest not only as he says does he lsquoArabize Italian and Italianize Arabicrsquo (2009 137) he also arguably performs an intermodal translation (oral into written)

In the case of transnational narratives such as this one that relate to a cul-turally and linguistically heterogeneous minority group the very affirmation of diversity burdens the creative voice with the additional task of social and cultural interpretation of mediating not only between different spaces but also between different histories In other words in a situation in which cultural and linguistic homogeneity cannot be assumed the characters the author and the readers do

240 Rita Wilson

not necessarily belong either to the same geographical areas mdash as illustrated for example by the different dialects mdash or historical moment as exemplified by dif-ferent migrant (hi)stories The very language in which the novel is written while it is seemingly the lsquonationalrsquo language nevertheless calls for translation because its idiom includes the legacies of many other idioms6

The plot of Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio is shaped around a single apartment building on Piazza Vittorio in the Esquilino suburb of Rome The buildingrsquos residents whose stories interweave offer a microcosm of the intercultural reality of contemporary Rome as they battle over the deteriorating condition of their elevator It is the catalyst for daily clashes between the tenants an out-and-out war that brings to the fore the inability to relate to the other be the lsquootherrsquo a foreigner like Johan Van Marten a Dutch film student who wants to revive 1950s Neorealism by making a movie (titled naturally lsquoClash of Civiliza-tions Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittoriorsquo) or a lsquonativersquo Italian like Antonio Marini a Milanese who has moved to Rome to take up an academic post at La Sapienza University thinks southern Italians are all criminals and believes the unification of Italy was an lsquoirreparable historical mistakersquo (2008 76) In short Scontro can be said to epitomize a lsquonarrative space in which language and identity conflicts become textualizedrsquo (Millaacuten-Varela 2004 52) A distinctive feature of such nar-ratives is the conscious effort to transmit a linguistic and cultural heritage that is articulated through acts of personal and collective memory In this way writers become chroniclers of the displaced whose stories will otherwise go unrecorded (Seyhan 2001 12) and their narratives perform the essential function of giving a voice to lsquoparanationalrsquo communities (Seyhan 2001 10) As Armando Gnisci (2007) notes they have already undertaken lsquoil salto triplorsquo (the triple jump) going beyond multi- and interculturalism and providing a new model of reciprocal education that can be defined as lsquotransculturalrsquo Lakhous offers just such a transcultural out-look on the Italian way of life by representing a mixed and decentred subjectivity that is always in dialogue with cultural otherness

4 Whose truth is it anyway

The constant shifts between the perspectives of the multiethnic cast of characters generate a lsquoplurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses a genuine polyphony of fully valid voicesrsquo (Bakhtin 1984 6) each of which expresses a different opinion on the recent event that has thrown the neighbourhood into disarray the discovery of the body of Lorenzo Manfredini a thug nicknamed lsquoThe Gladiatorrsquo in the buildingrsquos elevator One of the residents Amedeo who has appar-ently disappeared becomes the chief murder suspect The police question every-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 241

one who knows him and each character gets a chapter to relate the truth as he or she knows it (or wants it known) in the form of a deposition to the police By al-lowing the individual voices to take the floor Lakhous offers new perspectives and reveals new social dynamics mdash with a marked emphasis on the conflictual side of these interactions The complexity at the base of urban social relations is further entangled by the need to negotiate the uncertain articulations of racial class and gender differences between both the ldquonativesrdquo and the migrants as well as between the different ethnicities of the migrants

As the testimonials unfold the uncertainty about Amedeorsquos true identity in-creases with the discussion centring around his ldquorealrdquo name Although in Rome everyone calls him Amedeo this is as a result of an initial error on the part of the local barista Sandro who mishears the Arabic pronunciation and inadvertently changes it to an Italian name

quando Sandro mi ha chiesto il mio nome gli ho risposto laquoAhmedraquo Ma lui lrsquoha pronunciato senza la lettera H percheacute non si usa molto nella lingua italiana e alla fine mi ha chiamato Amedersquo che egrave un nome italiano che si puograve abbreviare con Amed (2006 139)

when Sandro asked me my name I answered lsquoAhmedrsquo But he pronounced it with-out the letter lsquohrsquo because lsquohrsquo isnrsquot used much in Italian and in the end he called me Amedersquo which is an Italian name and can be shortened to Amed (2008 99)

On the level of the narrative this slip-up characterizes Sandrorsquos monolingual worldview

The same slip-up however also functions on the level of meta-narrative as a strategic communication aimed directly at the reader a linguistic error that bears the real truth value within Lakhousrsquo economy of meaning The manipulation of the cognate AhmedAmedeo exemplifies Lakhousrsquo narrative strategy from here on the tale that unfolds is one of slight shifts of double entendres in which ap-pearances of familiarity are misleading While such moments of ldquoplayrdquo are inter-spersed throughout the novel often it is not simply language but actual material survival that is at stake these verbal exchanges are power plays as much as they are wordplays The representation of linguistic negotiations (ie translation and mis-translation) between the mix of cultures represented by the characters becomes an internal literary strategy deployed first in order to expose the mechanisms of power and then to subvert them Sandrorsquos error draws attention to a writing pro-cess that Michaela Wolf describes as

ldquothe authorial unmasking of anotherrsquos speech through a language that is ldquodouble-accentedrdquo and ldquodouble-styledrdquo [hellip] through this hybrid construction [hellip] one voice is able to unmask the other within a single discourse It is at this point that authoritative discourse becomes undonerdquo (2000 133)

242 Rita Wilson

The thematic potential of the ldquohybrid constructionrdquo is exploited by Lakhous throughout the novel to make a point not only about the instability of language itself but more particularly about the relationship between names and ldquonationalrdquo identities Not only can language come to ldquomeanrdquo something other than what the speaker intends but cognates and shared roots can cross the delineating boundar-ies of language and national identity thereby destabilizing the distinction between self and other The error caused by the homophony of the two names coincides with a self-translation that has been taking place all along and results in a fortu-itous ldquodoublerdquo identity the re-naming allows the protagonist to construct an Italian life perfectly integrated thanks to his excellent grasp of the Italian language and his generous nature that enable him to become a positive role model and ldquopoint of referencerdquo for all the residents in the condominium and the neighbourhood

In this context translation operates inside the narrative both in the traditional pragmatic sense (in terms of the conversion of language) and in a derivative meta-phorical sense as the narrative symbolically ldquoconvertsrdquo the contested structures of power through strategic intentional moments of linguistic or communicative slippage In the latter case translation is less a distinct operation and more a habi-tus7 in which the breathing space between two languages or between the message intended by the speaker and the message received by the listener becomes a space of latent resistance To make sense of the narrative readers must fill in the gaps by knowing what Sandro does not In some cases this knowledge is linguistic in oth-er cases it requires familiarity with Italian or Arabic cultural discourses and sym-bolic resonances as with Mehrezrsquos notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text and as embodied in the double name AhmedAmedeo Representing the doubleness of selfhood the protagonistrsquos ldquosplit identityrdquo can be said to correspond to a translation conflict between the memory of his lost ldquooriginal languagerdquo and the curative potential of his adopted language (cf Lakhous 2009) AhmedAmedeo a man in transit in translation is the central component required to solve the murder mystery and at the same time is the indispensable mediator at the narrative level he mediates the clash of cultures between the various characters as well as their disparate views on the lsquotruthrsquo at the metnarrative level he mediates for the reader by providing a more balanced view of events as they unfold through his diary entries which alter-nate with the testimonials of all the other characters

5 The fiction of the translator

AhmedAmedeo as the powerful embodiment of ldquoliving in translationrdquo does not abandon his ldquonativerdquo identity rather he goes beyond the identities carrying ldquothe responsibility of articulating the signifying bridge between contexts and [becom-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

236 Rita Wilson

appearing in great numbers on the European literary scene written by authors who have been variously described as ldquomigrantrdquo ldquodiasporicrdquo and more recently ldquotransnationalrdquo (Seyhan 2001) and who are also variously referred to as multi het-ero- poly- or translingual writers1

The concepts of translated identities and cultures have been addressed by nu-merous well-known theorists in postcolonial literary and cultural studies Fran-ccediloise Lionnet Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Niranjana Tejaswini for example have all emphasized the necessity for readers and writers to demonstrate linguistic flexibility in order to contend with the polyphonic qualities of texts that construct hybrid identities2 While the work of these theorists constitutes an important basis for studies on the challenges faced by those who belong to ethnolinguistic minori-ties and choose to write in a language other than their mother tongue it needs to be recognized that their research is firmly located within the discourse of postco-lonialism is concerned with the framework through which we perceive relations of power and of alterity and tends to focus on the relationship of the language(s) to the dominant structures of power

In contrast the discourse on ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo3 highlights the dialec-tic between the local and the global which produces cultural heterogeneity (Ap-padurai 1996) and revolves around notions of ldquohybridityrdquo and the translation of cultures through the spatial displacement of people Of particular interest to this paper is Homi K Bhabharsquos identification of the location of cultures in the global-ization age at the intersection of the transnational and the translational (1994) The transnational manifests itself in

specific histories of cultural displacement whether they are the ldquomiddle passagerdquo of slavery and indenture the ldquovoyage outrdquo of the civilizing mission the fraught accommodation of Third World migration to the West after the Second World War or the traffic of economic and political refugees within and outside the Third World (1994 247)

The translational describes the complex process of cultural signification produced under the impact of such displacements migrations relocations and diasporas and the unprecedented development of transnational electronic communications and media systems

Although criticized for its lack of specificity4 Bhabharsquos concept of ldquocultural trans-lationrdquo has formed the basis for much contemporary debate in translation studies since the so-called ldquopostcolonial turnrdquo in the late 1990s (Bassnett and Trivedi 1999 Tymoczko 2003 Cronin 2006 72 Batchelor 2009 250ndash253 Pym 2010 143ndash148 Si-mon and St-Pierre 2000 Hermans 2006) Drawing on Derridarsquos notion of ldquodisseacutemina-tionrdquo Bhabha coins the term ldquoDissemiNationrdquo to tackle the question of ldquonationnessrdquo as a grand narrative of identity and difference and of translation as the in-between

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 237

frontier space where migrant and minority identities are found (1994 199ndash244) For Bhabha the power of translation lies in ldquothe performative nature of cultural commu-nicationrdquo (1994 326) and the focus of attention is on the position of the translator as it intersects with the construction of national identities and the material movement of peoples To put it differently Bhabharsquos notion of translation does not seek to re-inforce previously established borders (as commonly represented by the notions of source textculture and target textculture) but instead to rethink translation from the border (Mignolo 2000) This leads to a new concept of translation in contempo-rary theoretical discourse which assumes a broader definition that goes beyond the interlingual passage and rather encompasses the multiple aspects of ldquotransnational and transcultural encountersrdquo at the base of our global culture (Bandia 2009 1) It is in this sense that Bhabharsquos cultural translation becomes as Anthony Pym argues ldquoa way of talking about the worldrdquo (2010 148) In this regard even if the ambiguity that characterizes Bhabharsquos use of cultural translation ultimately downplays the validity of the concept for translation studies the connection it creates between translation ldquonationnessrdquo and migration apropos of contemporary cultural dynamics including the production and reception of translingual narratives should not be overlooked

2 Locating transnationaltranslingual narratives

Marked by those ldquomultiple deterritorializations of languagerdquo that Deleuze and Guattari find in ldquominor literaturesrdquo (1986 19) translingual narratives transform literary and cultural discourse not only by relocating it on cultural margins and by foregrounding intercultural dialogue and translation but also by drawing dis-crete literary traditions into contact5 Such narratives doubly manifest that par-ticularly ldquopalpablerdquo heterogeneity that Itamar Even-Zohar finds in ldquobi- or multilin-gualrdquo societies manifested ldquowithin the realm of literature [hellip] in a situation where a community possesses two (or more) literary systems two literatures as it wererdquo one of which is typically ignored by scholarship (1990 12)

Contrary to postcolonial writers whose narratives self-consciously engage with their own linguistic meacutetissage andor cultural hybridity by explicitly thema-tizing the power relationships between different linguistic strands the narratives of transnationaltranslingual writers explore new identities by constructing new dialogic spaces in which language choice is located outside the oppositional model set up by the traditional binaries of postcolonial theorizing centremargin selfother colonisercolonized Their position is encapsulated in the works of a con-temporary Italian writer born and raised in Algiers and fluent in Arabic Berber and French Amara Lakhous In his words

238 Rita Wilson

There is a whole discourse on the politicization of French by Algerian writers themselves and there is a certain use of nationalism that bothers me mdash so I extricate myself from this For me French is not even a ldquospoil of warrdquo as Kateb Ya-cine said that is still the colonial context it belongs to that generation I belong to another generation For me French is a language like any other Thanks to French I discovered Flaubert who is for me one of the most important writers It is a language like other languages In my case I prefer Italian to French for aesthetic and creative reasons and also to extricate myself from this postcolonial discourse (cited in Esposito 2011 4)

While not necessarily an entirely new form of cultural response to (neo)colonial pressures the predominant response of writers like Lakhous to specific texts styles and motifs of metropolitan literatures is through parody pastiche irony mimicry and similar literary techniques

In my opinion Amara Lakhous is exemplary of a new generation of transling-ual writers in whose work the thematization of cultural translation mdash conceptual-ized as a process of intercultural encounter that reshapes thoughts by ldquotranslatingrdquo them between cultures mdash serves as a vehicle for disrupting the truth value of the dominant lsquonationalrsquo discourse Written in both Italian and Arabic his work lays emphasis on the concept of language as both ldquohomerdquo and simultaneously a ldquotrans-lated spacerdquo what Iain Chambers calls ldquoa site of transit and differencerdquo suggesting ldquothat a diverse sense of identity might begin to be acknowledged here Land and locality mdash onerdquos roots as it were mdash are not canceled rather they are reworked in the translating medium of languagersquo (2002 29)

3 From roots to routes

Lakhousrsquo first novel was written in Arabic and published in Algiers in 1999 It was also published in Italy in the same year in a bilingual edition Le cimici e il pirata (ldquoBedbugs and the Piraterdquo) This is a double text in more than one sense not only does it straddle two worlds and two quite distant cultures but it also concretely represents the notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text that can be fully decoded only by the bilingual reader conversant in both cultures and traditions and whose reading can therefore be ldquonone but a perpetual translationrdquo (Mehrez 1998 122ndash124) In effect this bilingual edition constructs a privileged space where double linguistic and cultural palimpsests create an intricate relational model between two worlds The double palimpsest mdash horizontally from language to language and vertically from oral tales to text mdash destabilizes meaning and deterritorializes both source and tar-get language while simultaneously reterritorializing them through the ldquomirroringrdquo effect of a bilingual edition This is a process akin to what Ioanna Chatzidimitriou

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 239

has described as a ldquominorizationrdquo process in which the ldquohost bodyrdquo undergoes ldquoa dehistoricization of sorts rendering [hellip] the palimpsest of its potentialities visible and allowing its signifying pluralities to take shape and subsequently assign form to novel historical associationsrdquo (2009 23ndash24)

The original Arabic version of Cimici begins at what for an Italian reader would be the lsquobackrsquo of the book Both the Italian version translated by Francesco Leg-gio and the Arabic version end in the lsquomiddlersquo of the book Thus the space of the translingual writerrsquos in-betweenness materializes in Cimici not only as the obvious division separating the two texts but most importantly as a process of displacement both vertically (from oral story-telling to text) and horizontally (Arabic to Italian) The lsquomeeting in the middlersquo of the two texts is a useful metaphoric construct to bear in mind when considering the mediation at work in Amara Lakhousrsquo second novel Also originally written in Arabic it was released in 2003 in Algeria with the title Kayfa tardalsquou min al-dhirsquoba dūna an talsquoadaka (lsquoHow to be suckled by the she-wolf without getting bittenrsquo) The novel was later re-written in Italian and re-titled Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio) Lakhous emphasises the fact that the Italian version is not lsquosimplyrsquo a translation but an act of re-writing that transcends the limitations of linguistic precision while validating linguistic choices that mimic the voices of the characters

Prima scrivo il mio testo in arabo Poi dico che lo riscrivo in italiano percheacute non si tratta di una semplice auto-traduzione non essendo obbligato a rispettare il testo originale lo ricreo a mio piacimento In tal senso godo di una libertagrave che il tradut-tore normalmente non ha [hellip] Cerco di usare il napoletano il milanese a seconda del linguaggio che usano i diversi personaggi (Lakhous 2005 np)

First I write my text in Arabic Then I say that I re-write it in Italian because it is not simply a case of self-translation as I am not obliged to respect the original text I re-create it as I wish In that sense I enjoy more freedom than a translator normally has [hellip] I try to use Neapolitan or Milanese according to how the dif-ferent characters would use language (Lakhous 2005 my translation)

Further by inscribing within written Italian the trace of oral Arabic Lakhous cre-ates a double palimpsest not only as he says does he lsquoArabize Italian and Italianize Arabicrsquo (2009 137) he also arguably performs an intermodal translation (oral into written)

In the case of transnational narratives such as this one that relate to a cul-turally and linguistically heterogeneous minority group the very affirmation of diversity burdens the creative voice with the additional task of social and cultural interpretation of mediating not only between different spaces but also between different histories In other words in a situation in which cultural and linguistic homogeneity cannot be assumed the characters the author and the readers do

240 Rita Wilson

not necessarily belong either to the same geographical areas mdash as illustrated for example by the different dialects mdash or historical moment as exemplified by dif-ferent migrant (hi)stories The very language in which the novel is written while it is seemingly the lsquonationalrsquo language nevertheless calls for translation because its idiom includes the legacies of many other idioms6

The plot of Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio is shaped around a single apartment building on Piazza Vittorio in the Esquilino suburb of Rome The buildingrsquos residents whose stories interweave offer a microcosm of the intercultural reality of contemporary Rome as they battle over the deteriorating condition of their elevator It is the catalyst for daily clashes between the tenants an out-and-out war that brings to the fore the inability to relate to the other be the lsquootherrsquo a foreigner like Johan Van Marten a Dutch film student who wants to revive 1950s Neorealism by making a movie (titled naturally lsquoClash of Civiliza-tions Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittoriorsquo) or a lsquonativersquo Italian like Antonio Marini a Milanese who has moved to Rome to take up an academic post at La Sapienza University thinks southern Italians are all criminals and believes the unification of Italy was an lsquoirreparable historical mistakersquo (2008 76) In short Scontro can be said to epitomize a lsquonarrative space in which language and identity conflicts become textualizedrsquo (Millaacuten-Varela 2004 52) A distinctive feature of such nar-ratives is the conscious effort to transmit a linguistic and cultural heritage that is articulated through acts of personal and collective memory In this way writers become chroniclers of the displaced whose stories will otherwise go unrecorded (Seyhan 2001 12) and their narratives perform the essential function of giving a voice to lsquoparanationalrsquo communities (Seyhan 2001 10) As Armando Gnisci (2007) notes they have already undertaken lsquoil salto triplorsquo (the triple jump) going beyond multi- and interculturalism and providing a new model of reciprocal education that can be defined as lsquotransculturalrsquo Lakhous offers just such a transcultural out-look on the Italian way of life by representing a mixed and decentred subjectivity that is always in dialogue with cultural otherness

4 Whose truth is it anyway

The constant shifts between the perspectives of the multiethnic cast of characters generate a lsquoplurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses a genuine polyphony of fully valid voicesrsquo (Bakhtin 1984 6) each of which expresses a different opinion on the recent event that has thrown the neighbourhood into disarray the discovery of the body of Lorenzo Manfredini a thug nicknamed lsquoThe Gladiatorrsquo in the buildingrsquos elevator One of the residents Amedeo who has appar-ently disappeared becomes the chief murder suspect The police question every-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 241

one who knows him and each character gets a chapter to relate the truth as he or she knows it (or wants it known) in the form of a deposition to the police By al-lowing the individual voices to take the floor Lakhous offers new perspectives and reveals new social dynamics mdash with a marked emphasis on the conflictual side of these interactions The complexity at the base of urban social relations is further entangled by the need to negotiate the uncertain articulations of racial class and gender differences between both the ldquonativesrdquo and the migrants as well as between the different ethnicities of the migrants

As the testimonials unfold the uncertainty about Amedeorsquos true identity in-creases with the discussion centring around his ldquorealrdquo name Although in Rome everyone calls him Amedeo this is as a result of an initial error on the part of the local barista Sandro who mishears the Arabic pronunciation and inadvertently changes it to an Italian name

quando Sandro mi ha chiesto il mio nome gli ho risposto laquoAhmedraquo Ma lui lrsquoha pronunciato senza la lettera H percheacute non si usa molto nella lingua italiana e alla fine mi ha chiamato Amedersquo che egrave un nome italiano che si puograve abbreviare con Amed (2006 139)

when Sandro asked me my name I answered lsquoAhmedrsquo But he pronounced it with-out the letter lsquohrsquo because lsquohrsquo isnrsquot used much in Italian and in the end he called me Amedersquo which is an Italian name and can be shortened to Amed (2008 99)

On the level of the narrative this slip-up characterizes Sandrorsquos monolingual worldview

The same slip-up however also functions on the level of meta-narrative as a strategic communication aimed directly at the reader a linguistic error that bears the real truth value within Lakhousrsquo economy of meaning The manipulation of the cognate AhmedAmedeo exemplifies Lakhousrsquo narrative strategy from here on the tale that unfolds is one of slight shifts of double entendres in which ap-pearances of familiarity are misleading While such moments of ldquoplayrdquo are inter-spersed throughout the novel often it is not simply language but actual material survival that is at stake these verbal exchanges are power plays as much as they are wordplays The representation of linguistic negotiations (ie translation and mis-translation) between the mix of cultures represented by the characters becomes an internal literary strategy deployed first in order to expose the mechanisms of power and then to subvert them Sandrorsquos error draws attention to a writing pro-cess that Michaela Wolf describes as

ldquothe authorial unmasking of anotherrsquos speech through a language that is ldquodouble-accentedrdquo and ldquodouble-styledrdquo [hellip] through this hybrid construction [hellip] one voice is able to unmask the other within a single discourse It is at this point that authoritative discourse becomes undonerdquo (2000 133)

242 Rita Wilson

The thematic potential of the ldquohybrid constructionrdquo is exploited by Lakhous throughout the novel to make a point not only about the instability of language itself but more particularly about the relationship between names and ldquonationalrdquo identities Not only can language come to ldquomeanrdquo something other than what the speaker intends but cognates and shared roots can cross the delineating boundar-ies of language and national identity thereby destabilizing the distinction between self and other The error caused by the homophony of the two names coincides with a self-translation that has been taking place all along and results in a fortu-itous ldquodoublerdquo identity the re-naming allows the protagonist to construct an Italian life perfectly integrated thanks to his excellent grasp of the Italian language and his generous nature that enable him to become a positive role model and ldquopoint of referencerdquo for all the residents in the condominium and the neighbourhood

In this context translation operates inside the narrative both in the traditional pragmatic sense (in terms of the conversion of language) and in a derivative meta-phorical sense as the narrative symbolically ldquoconvertsrdquo the contested structures of power through strategic intentional moments of linguistic or communicative slippage In the latter case translation is less a distinct operation and more a habi-tus7 in which the breathing space between two languages or between the message intended by the speaker and the message received by the listener becomes a space of latent resistance To make sense of the narrative readers must fill in the gaps by knowing what Sandro does not In some cases this knowledge is linguistic in oth-er cases it requires familiarity with Italian or Arabic cultural discourses and sym-bolic resonances as with Mehrezrsquos notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text and as embodied in the double name AhmedAmedeo Representing the doubleness of selfhood the protagonistrsquos ldquosplit identityrdquo can be said to correspond to a translation conflict between the memory of his lost ldquooriginal languagerdquo and the curative potential of his adopted language (cf Lakhous 2009) AhmedAmedeo a man in transit in translation is the central component required to solve the murder mystery and at the same time is the indispensable mediator at the narrative level he mediates the clash of cultures between the various characters as well as their disparate views on the lsquotruthrsquo at the metnarrative level he mediates for the reader by providing a more balanced view of events as they unfold through his diary entries which alter-nate with the testimonials of all the other characters

5 The fiction of the translator

AhmedAmedeo as the powerful embodiment of ldquoliving in translationrdquo does not abandon his ldquonativerdquo identity rather he goes beyond the identities carrying ldquothe responsibility of articulating the signifying bridge between contexts and [becom-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 237

frontier space where migrant and minority identities are found (1994 199ndash244) For Bhabha the power of translation lies in ldquothe performative nature of cultural commu-nicationrdquo (1994 326) and the focus of attention is on the position of the translator as it intersects with the construction of national identities and the material movement of peoples To put it differently Bhabharsquos notion of translation does not seek to re-inforce previously established borders (as commonly represented by the notions of source textculture and target textculture) but instead to rethink translation from the border (Mignolo 2000) This leads to a new concept of translation in contempo-rary theoretical discourse which assumes a broader definition that goes beyond the interlingual passage and rather encompasses the multiple aspects of ldquotransnational and transcultural encountersrdquo at the base of our global culture (Bandia 2009 1) It is in this sense that Bhabharsquos cultural translation becomes as Anthony Pym argues ldquoa way of talking about the worldrdquo (2010 148) In this regard even if the ambiguity that characterizes Bhabharsquos use of cultural translation ultimately downplays the validity of the concept for translation studies the connection it creates between translation ldquonationnessrdquo and migration apropos of contemporary cultural dynamics including the production and reception of translingual narratives should not be overlooked

2 Locating transnationaltranslingual narratives

Marked by those ldquomultiple deterritorializations of languagerdquo that Deleuze and Guattari find in ldquominor literaturesrdquo (1986 19) translingual narratives transform literary and cultural discourse not only by relocating it on cultural margins and by foregrounding intercultural dialogue and translation but also by drawing dis-crete literary traditions into contact5 Such narratives doubly manifest that par-ticularly ldquopalpablerdquo heterogeneity that Itamar Even-Zohar finds in ldquobi- or multilin-gualrdquo societies manifested ldquowithin the realm of literature [hellip] in a situation where a community possesses two (or more) literary systems two literatures as it wererdquo one of which is typically ignored by scholarship (1990 12)

Contrary to postcolonial writers whose narratives self-consciously engage with their own linguistic meacutetissage andor cultural hybridity by explicitly thema-tizing the power relationships between different linguistic strands the narratives of transnationaltranslingual writers explore new identities by constructing new dialogic spaces in which language choice is located outside the oppositional model set up by the traditional binaries of postcolonial theorizing centremargin selfother colonisercolonized Their position is encapsulated in the works of a con-temporary Italian writer born and raised in Algiers and fluent in Arabic Berber and French Amara Lakhous In his words

238 Rita Wilson

There is a whole discourse on the politicization of French by Algerian writers themselves and there is a certain use of nationalism that bothers me mdash so I extricate myself from this For me French is not even a ldquospoil of warrdquo as Kateb Ya-cine said that is still the colonial context it belongs to that generation I belong to another generation For me French is a language like any other Thanks to French I discovered Flaubert who is for me one of the most important writers It is a language like other languages In my case I prefer Italian to French for aesthetic and creative reasons and also to extricate myself from this postcolonial discourse (cited in Esposito 2011 4)

While not necessarily an entirely new form of cultural response to (neo)colonial pressures the predominant response of writers like Lakhous to specific texts styles and motifs of metropolitan literatures is through parody pastiche irony mimicry and similar literary techniques

In my opinion Amara Lakhous is exemplary of a new generation of transling-ual writers in whose work the thematization of cultural translation mdash conceptual-ized as a process of intercultural encounter that reshapes thoughts by ldquotranslatingrdquo them between cultures mdash serves as a vehicle for disrupting the truth value of the dominant lsquonationalrsquo discourse Written in both Italian and Arabic his work lays emphasis on the concept of language as both ldquohomerdquo and simultaneously a ldquotrans-lated spacerdquo what Iain Chambers calls ldquoa site of transit and differencerdquo suggesting ldquothat a diverse sense of identity might begin to be acknowledged here Land and locality mdash onerdquos roots as it were mdash are not canceled rather they are reworked in the translating medium of languagersquo (2002 29)

3 From roots to routes

Lakhousrsquo first novel was written in Arabic and published in Algiers in 1999 It was also published in Italy in the same year in a bilingual edition Le cimici e il pirata (ldquoBedbugs and the Piraterdquo) This is a double text in more than one sense not only does it straddle two worlds and two quite distant cultures but it also concretely represents the notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text that can be fully decoded only by the bilingual reader conversant in both cultures and traditions and whose reading can therefore be ldquonone but a perpetual translationrdquo (Mehrez 1998 122ndash124) In effect this bilingual edition constructs a privileged space where double linguistic and cultural palimpsests create an intricate relational model between two worlds The double palimpsest mdash horizontally from language to language and vertically from oral tales to text mdash destabilizes meaning and deterritorializes both source and tar-get language while simultaneously reterritorializing them through the ldquomirroringrdquo effect of a bilingual edition This is a process akin to what Ioanna Chatzidimitriou

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 239

has described as a ldquominorizationrdquo process in which the ldquohost bodyrdquo undergoes ldquoa dehistoricization of sorts rendering [hellip] the palimpsest of its potentialities visible and allowing its signifying pluralities to take shape and subsequently assign form to novel historical associationsrdquo (2009 23ndash24)

The original Arabic version of Cimici begins at what for an Italian reader would be the lsquobackrsquo of the book Both the Italian version translated by Francesco Leg-gio and the Arabic version end in the lsquomiddlersquo of the book Thus the space of the translingual writerrsquos in-betweenness materializes in Cimici not only as the obvious division separating the two texts but most importantly as a process of displacement both vertically (from oral story-telling to text) and horizontally (Arabic to Italian) The lsquomeeting in the middlersquo of the two texts is a useful metaphoric construct to bear in mind when considering the mediation at work in Amara Lakhousrsquo second novel Also originally written in Arabic it was released in 2003 in Algeria with the title Kayfa tardalsquou min al-dhirsquoba dūna an talsquoadaka (lsquoHow to be suckled by the she-wolf without getting bittenrsquo) The novel was later re-written in Italian and re-titled Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio) Lakhous emphasises the fact that the Italian version is not lsquosimplyrsquo a translation but an act of re-writing that transcends the limitations of linguistic precision while validating linguistic choices that mimic the voices of the characters

Prima scrivo il mio testo in arabo Poi dico che lo riscrivo in italiano percheacute non si tratta di una semplice auto-traduzione non essendo obbligato a rispettare il testo originale lo ricreo a mio piacimento In tal senso godo di una libertagrave che il tradut-tore normalmente non ha [hellip] Cerco di usare il napoletano il milanese a seconda del linguaggio che usano i diversi personaggi (Lakhous 2005 np)

First I write my text in Arabic Then I say that I re-write it in Italian because it is not simply a case of self-translation as I am not obliged to respect the original text I re-create it as I wish In that sense I enjoy more freedom than a translator normally has [hellip] I try to use Neapolitan or Milanese according to how the dif-ferent characters would use language (Lakhous 2005 my translation)

Further by inscribing within written Italian the trace of oral Arabic Lakhous cre-ates a double palimpsest not only as he says does he lsquoArabize Italian and Italianize Arabicrsquo (2009 137) he also arguably performs an intermodal translation (oral into written)

In the case of transnational narratives such as this one that relate to a cul-turally and linguistically heterogeneous minority group the very affirmation of diversity burdens the creative voice with the additional task of social and cultural interpretation of mediating not only between different spaces but also between different histories In other words in a situation in which cultural and linguistic homogeneity cannot be assumed the characters the author and the readers do

240 Rita Wilson

not necessarily belong either to the same geographical areas mdash as illustrated for example by the different dialects mdash or historical moment as exemplified by dif-ferent migrant (hi)stories The very language in which the novel is written while it is seemingly the lsquonationalrsquo language nevertheless calls for translation because its idiom includes the legacies of many other idioms6

The plot of Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio is shaped around a single apartment building on Piazza Vittorio in the Esquilino suburb of Rome The buildingrsquos residents whose stories interweave offer a microcosm of the intercultural reality of contemporary Rome as they battle over the deteriorating condition of their elevator It is the catalyst for daily clashes between the tenants an out-and-out war that brings to the fore the inability to relate to the other be the lsquootherrsquo a foreigner like Johan Van Marten a Dutch film student who wants to revive 1950s Neorealism by making a movie (titled naturally lsquoClash of Civiliza-tions Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittoriorsquo) or a lsquonativersquo Italian like Antonio Marini a Milanese who has moved to Rome to take up an academic post at La Sapienza University thinks southern Italians are all criminals and believes the unification of Italy was an lsquoirreparable historical mistakersquo (2008 76) In short Scontro can be said to epitomize a lsquonarrative space in which language and identity conflicts become textualizedrsquo (Millaacuten-Varela 2004 52) A distinctive feature of such nar-ratives is the conscious effort to transmit a linguistic and cultural heritage that is articulated through acts of personal and collective memory In this way writers become chroniclers of the displaced whose stories will otherwise go unrecorded (Seyhan 2001 12) and their narratives perform the essential function of giving a voice to lsquoparanationalrsquo communities (Seyhan 2001 10) As Armando Gnisci (2007) notes they have already undertaken lsquoil salto triplorsquo (the triple jump) going beyond multi- and interculturalism and providing a new model of reciprocal education that can be defined as lsquotransculturalrsquo Lakhous offers just such a transcultural out-look on the Italian way of life by representing a mixed and decentred subjectivity that is always in dialogue with cultural otherness

4 Whose truth is it anyway

The constant shifts between the perspectives of the multiethnic cast of characters generate a lsquoplurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses a genuine polyphony of fully valid voicesrsquo (Bakhtin 1984 6) each of which expresses a different opinion on the recent event that has thrown the neighbourhood into disarray the discovery of the body of Lorenzo Manfredini a thug nicknamed lsquoThe Gladiatorrsquo in the buildingrsquos elevator One of the residents Amedeo who has appar-ently disappeared becomes the chief murder suspect The police question every-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 241

one who knows him and each character gets a chapter to relate the truth as he or she knows it (or wants it known) in the form of a deposition to the police By al-lowing the individual voices to take the floor Lakhous offers new perspectives and reveals new social dynamics mdash with a marked emphasis on the conflictual side of these interactions The complexity at the base of urban social relations is further entangled by the need to negotiate the uncertain articulations of racial class and gender differences between both the ldquonativesrdquo and the migrants as well as between the different ethnicities of the migrants

As the testimonials unfold the uncertainty about Amedeorsquos true identity in-creases with the discussion centring around his ldquorealrdquo name Although in Rome everyone calls him Amedeo this is as a result of an initial error on the part of the local barista Sandro who mishears the Arabic pronunciation and inadvertently changes it to an Italian name

quando Sandro mi ha chiesto il mio nome gli ho risposto laquoAhmedraquo Ma lui lrsquoha pronunciato senza la lettera H percheacute non si usa molto nella lingua italiana e alla fine mi ha chiamato Amedersquo che egrave un nome italiano che si puograve abbreviare con Amed (2006 139)

when Sandro asked me my name I answered lsquoAhmedrsquo But he pronounced it with-out the letter lsquohrsquo because lsquohrsquo isnrsquot used much in Italian and in the end he called me Amedersquo which is an Italian name and can be shortened to Amed (2008 99)

On the level of the narrative this slip-up characterizes Sandrorsquos monolingual worldview

The same slip-up however also functions on the level of meta-narrative as a strategic communication aimed directly at the reader a linguistic error that bears the real truth value within Lakhousrsquo economy of meaning The manipulation of the cognate AhmedAmedeo exemplifies Lakhousrsquo narrative strategy from here on the tale that unfolds is one of slight shifts of double entendres in which ap-pearances of familiarity are misleading While such moments of ldquoplayrdquo are inter-spersed throughout the novel often it is not simply language but actual material survival that is at stake these verbal exchanges are power plays as much as they are wordplays The representation of linguistic negotiations (ie translation and mis-translation) between the mix of cultures represented by the characters becomes an internal literary strategy deployed first in order to expose the mechanisms of power and then to subvert them Sandrorsquos error draws attention to a writing pro-cess that Michaela Wolf describes as

ldquothe authorial unmasking of anotherrsquos speech through a language that is ldquodouble-accentedrdquo and ldquodouble-styledrdquo [hellip] through this hybrid construction [hellip] one voice is able to unmask the other within a single discourse It is at this point that authoritative discourse becomes undonerdquo (2000 133)

242 Rita Wilson

The thematic potential of the ldquohybrid constructionrdquo is exploited by Lakhous throughout the novel to make a point not only about the instability of language itself but more particularly about the relationship between names and ldquonationalrdquo identities Not only can language come to ldquomeanrdquo something other than what the speaker intends but cognates and shared roots can cross the delineating boundar-ies of language and national identity thereby destabilizing the distinction between self and other The error caused by the homophony of the two names coincides with a self-translation that has been taking place all along and results in a fortu-itous ldquodoublerdquo identity the re-naming allows the protagonist to construct an Italian life perfectly integrated thanks to his excellent grasp of the Italian language and his generous nature that enable him to become a positive role model and ldquopoint of referencerdquo for all the residents in the condominium and the neighbourhood

In this context translation operates inside the narrative both in the traditional pragmatic sense (in terms of the conversion of language) and in a derivative meta-phorical sense as the narrative symbolically ldquoconvertsrdquo the contested structures of power through strategic intentional moments of linguistic or communicative slippage In the latter case translation is less a distinct operation and more a habi-tus7 in which the breathing space between two languages or between the message intended by the speaker and the message received by the listener becomes a space of latent resistance To make sense of the narrative readers must fill in the gaps by knowing what Sandro does not In some cases this knowledge is linguistic in oth-er cases it requires familiarity with Italian or Arabic cultural discourses and sym-bolic resonances as with Mehrezrsquos notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text and as embodied in the double name AhmedAmedeo Representing the doubleness of selfhood the protagonistrsquos ldquosplit identityrdquo can be said to correspond to a translation conflict between the memory of his lost ldquooriginal languagerdquo and the curative potential of his adopted language (cf Lakhous 2009) AhmedAmedeo a man in transit in translation is the central component required to solve the murder mystery and at the same time is the indispensable mediator at the narrative level he mediates the clash of cultures between the various characters as well as their disparate views on the lsquotruthrsquo at the metnarrative level he mediates for the reader by providing a more balanced view of events as they unfold through his diary entries which alter-nate with the testimonials of all the other characters

5 The fiction of the translator

AhmedAmedeo as the powerful embodiment of ldquoliving in translationrdquo does not abandon his ldquonativerdquo identity rather he goes beyond the identities carrying ldquothe responsibility of articulating the signifying bridge between contexts and [becom-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

238 Rita Wilson

There is a whole discourse on the politicization of French by Algerian writers themselves and there is a certain use of nationalism that bothers me mdash so I extricate myself from this For me French is not even a ldquospoil of warrdquo as Kateb Ya-cine said that is still the colonial context it belongs to that generation I belong to another generation For me French is a language like any other Thanks to French I discovered Flaubert who is for me one of the most important writers It is a language like other languages In my case I prefer Italian to French for aesthetic and creative reasons and also to extricate myself from this postcolonial discourse (cited in Esposito 2011 4)

While not necessarily an entirely new form of cultural response to (neo)colonial pressures the predominant response of writers like Lakhous to specific texts styles and motifs of metropolitan literatures is through parody pastiche irony mimicry and similar literary techniques

In my opinion Amara Lakhous is exemplary of a new generation of transling-ual writers in whose work the thematization of cultural translation mdash conceptual-ized as a process of intercultural encounter that reshapes thoughts by ldquotranslatingrdquo them between cultures mdash serves as a vehicle for disrupting the truth value of the dominant lsquonationalrsquo discourse Written in both Italian and Arabic his work lays emphasis on the concept of language as both ldquohomerdquo and simultaneously a ldquotrans-lated spacerdquo what Iain Chambers calls ldquoa site of transit and differencerdquo suggesting ldquothat a diverse sense of identity might begin to be acknowledged here Land and locality mdash onerdquos roots as it were mdash are not canceled rather they are reworked in the translating medium of languagersquo (2002 29)

3 From roots to routes

Lakhousrsquo first novel was written in Arabic and published in Algiers in 1999 It was also published in Italy in the same year in a bilingual edition Le cimici e il pirata (ldquoBedbugs and the Piraterdquo) This is a double text in more than one sense not only does it straddle two worlds and two quite distant cultures but it also concretely represents the notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text that can be fully decoded only by the bilingual reader conversant in both cultures and traditions and whose reading can therefore be ldquonone but a perpetual translationrdquo (Mehrez 1998 122ndash124) In effect this bilingual edition constructs a privileged space where double linguistic and cultural palimpsests create an intricate relational model between two worlds The double palimpsest mdash horizontally from language to language and vertically from oral tales to text mdash destabilizes meaning and deterritorializes both source and tar-get language while simultaneously reterritorializing them through the ldquomirroringrdquo effect of a bilingual edition This is a process akin to what Ioanna Chatzidimitriou

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 239

has described as a ldquominorizationrdquo process in which the ldquohost bodyrdquo undergoes ldquoa dehistoricization of sorts rendering [hellip] the palimpsest of its potentialities visible and allowing its signifying pluralities to take shape and subsequently assign form to novel historical associationsrdquo (2009 23ndash24)

The original Arabic version of Cimici begins at what for an Italian reader would be the lsquobackrsquo of the book Both the Italian version translated by Francesco Leg-gio and the Arabic version end in the lsquomiddlersquo of the book Thus the space of the translingual writerrsquos in-betweenness materializes in Cimici not only as the obvious division separating the two texts but most importantly as a process of displacement both vertically (from oral story-telling to text) and horizontally (Arabic to Italian) The lsquomeeting in the middlersquo of the two texts is a useful metaphoric construct to bear in mind when considering the mediation at work in Amara Lakhousrsquo second novel Also originally written in Arabic it was released in 2003 in Algeria with the title Kayfa tardalsquou min al-dhirsquoba dūna an talsquoadaka (lsquoHow to be suckled by the she-wolf without getting bittenrsquo) The novel was later re-written in Italian and re-titled Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio) Lakhous emphasises the fact that the Italian version is not lsquosimplyrsquo a translation but an act of re-writing that transcends the limitations of linguistic precision while validating linguistic choices that mimic the voices of the characters

Prima scrivo il mio testo in arabo Poi dico che lo riscrivo in italiano percheacute non si tratta di una semplice auto-traduzione non essendo obbligato a rispettare il testo originale lo ricreo a mio piacimento In tal senso godo di una libertagrave che il tradut-tore normalmente non ha [hellip] Cerco di usare il napoletano il milanese a seconda del linguaggio che usano i diversi personaggi (Lakhous 2005 np)

First I write my text in Arabic Then I say that I re-write it in Italian because it is not simply a case of self-translation as I am not obliged to respect the original text I re-create it as I wish In that sense I enjoy more freedom than a translator normally has [hellip] I try to use Neapolitan or Milanese according to how the dif-ferent characters would use language (Lakhous 2005 my translation)

Further by inscribing within written Italian the trace of oral Arabic Lakhous cre-ates a double palimpsest not only as he says does he lsquoArabize Italian and Italianize Arabicrsquo (2009 137) he also arguably performs an intermodal translation (oral into written)

In the case of transnational narratives such as this one that relate to a cul-turally and linguistically heterogeneous minority group the very affirmation of diversity burdens the creative voice with the additional task of social and cultural interpretation of mediating not only between different spaces but also between different histories In other words in a situation in which cultural and linguistic homogeneity cannot be assumed the characters the author and the readers do

240 Rita Wilson

not necessarily belong either to the same geographical areas mdash as illustrated for example by the different dialects mdash or historical moment as exemplified by dif-ferent migrant (hi)stories The very language in which the novel is written while it is seemingly the lsquonationalrsquo language nevertheless calls for translation because its idiom includes the legacies of many other idioms6

The plot of Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio is shaped around a single apartment building on Piazza Vittorio in the Esquilino suburb of Rome The buildingrsquos residents whose stories interweave offer a microcosm of the intercultural reality of contemporary Rome as they battle over the deteriorating condition of their elevator It is the catalyst for daily clashes between the tenants an out-and-out war that brings to the fore the inability to relate to the other be the lsquootherrsquo a foreigner like Johan Van Marten a Dutch film student who wants to revive 1950s Neorealism by making a movie (titled naturally lsquoClash of Civiliza-tions Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittoriorsquo) or a lsquonativersquo Italian like Antonio Marini a Milanese who has moved to Rome to take up an academic post at La Sapienza University thinks southern Italians are all criminals and believes the unification of Italy was an lsquoirreparable historical mistakersquo (2008 76) In short Scontro can be said to epitomize a lsquonarrative space in which language and identity conflicts become textualizedrsquo (Millaacuten-Varela 2004 52) A distinctive feature of such nar-ratives is the conscious effort to transmit a linguistic and cultural heritage that is articulated through acts of personal and collective memory In this way writers become chroniclers of the displaced whose stories will otherwise go unrecorded (Seyhan 2001 12) and their narratives perform the essential function of giving a voice to lsquoparanationalrsquo communities (Seyhan 2001 10) As Armando Gnisci (2007) notes they have already undertaken lsquoil salto triplorsquo (the triple jump) going beyond multi- and interculturalism and providing a new model of reciprocal education that can be defined as lsquotransculturalrsquo Lakhous offers just such a transcultural out-look on the Italian way of life by representing a mixed and decentred subjectivity that is always in dialogue with cultural otherness

4 Whose truth is it anyway

The constant shifts between the perspectives of the multiethnic cast of characters generate a lsquoplurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses a genuine polyphony of fully valid voicesrsquo (Bakhtin 1984 6) each of which expresses a different opinion on the recent event that has thrown the neighbourhood into disarray the discovery of the body of Lorenzo Manfredini a thug nicknamed lsquoThe Gladiatorrsquo in the buildingrsquos elevator One of the residents Amedeo who has appar-ently disappeared becomes the chief murder suspect The police question every-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 241

one who knows him and each character gets a chapter to relate the truth as he or she knows it (or wants it known) in the form of a deposition to the police By al-lowing the individual voices to take the floor Lakhous offers new perspectives and reveals new social dynamics mdash with a marked emphasis on the conflictual side of these interactions The complexity at the base of urban social relations is further entangled by the need to negotiate the uncertain articulations of racial class and gender differences between both the ldquonativesrdquo and the migrants as well as between the different ethnicities of the migrants

As the testimonials unfold the uncertainty about Amedeorsquos true identity in-creases with the discussion centring around his ldquorealrdquo name Although in Rome everyone calls him Amedeo this is as a result of an initial error on the part of the local barista Sandro who mishears the Arabic pronunciation and inadvertently changes it to an Italian name

quando Sandro mi ha chiesto il mio nome gli ho risposto laquoAhmedraquo Ma lui lrsquoha pronunciato senza la lettera H percheacute non si usa molto nella lingua italiana e alla fine mi ha chiamato Amedersquo che egrave un nome italiano che si puograve abbreviare con Amed (2006 139)

when Sandro asked me my name I answered lsquoAhmedrsquo But he pronounced it with-out the letter lsquohrsquo because lsquohrsquo isnrsquot used much in Italian and in the end he called me Amedersquo which is an Italian name and can be shortened to Amed (2008 99)

On the level of the narrative this slip-up characterizes Sandrorsquos monolingual worldview

The same slip-up however also functions on the level of meta-narrative as a strategic communication aimed directly at the reader a linguistic error that bears the real truth value within Lakhousrsquo economy of meaning The manipulation of the cognate AhmedAmedeo exemplifies Lakhousrsquo narrative strategy from here on the tale that unfolds is one of slight shifts of double entendres in which ap-pearances of familiarity are misleading While such moments of ldquoplayrdquo are inter-spersed throughout the novel often it is not simply language but actual material survival that is at stake these verbal exchanges are power plays as much as they are wordplays The representation of linguistic negotiations (ie translation and mis-translation) between the mix of cultures represented by the characters becomes an internal literary strategy deployed first in order to expose the mechanisms of power and then to subvert them Sandrorsquos error draws attention to a writing pro-cess that Michaela Wolf describes as

ldquothe authorial unmasking of anotherrsquos speech through a language that is ldquodouble-accentedrdquo and ldquodouble-styledrdquo [hellip] through this hybrid construction [hellip] one voice is able to unmask the other within a single discourse It is at this point that authoritative discourse becomes undonerdquo (2000 133)

242 Rita Wilson

The thematic potential of the ldquohybrid constructionrdquo is exploited by Lakhous throughout the novel to make a point not only about the instability of language itself but more particularly about the relationship between names and ldquonationalrdquo identities Not only can language come to ldquomeanrdquo something other than what the speaker intends but cognates and shared roots can cross the delineating boundar-ies of language and national identity thereby destabilizing the distinction between self and other The error caused by the homophony of the two names coincides with a self-translation that has been taking place all along and results in a fortu-itous ldquodoublerdquo identity the re-naming allows the protagonist to construct an Italian life perfectly integrated thanks to his excellent grasp of the Italian language and his generous nature that enable him to become a positive role model and ldquopoint of referencerdquo for all the residents in the condominium and the neighbourhood

In this context translation operates inside the narrative both in the traditional pragmatic sense (in terms of the conversion of language) and in a derivative meta-phorical sense as the narrative symbolically ldquoconvertsrdquo the contested structures of power through strategic intentional moments of linguistic or communicative slippage In the latter case translation is less a distinct operation and more a habi-tus7 in which the breathing space between two languages or between the message intended by the speaker and the message received by the listener becomes a space of latent resistance To make sense of the narrative readers must fill in the gaps by knowing what Sandro does not In some cases this knowledge is linguistic in oth-er cases it requires familiarity with Italian or Arabic cultural discourses and sym-bolic resonances as with Mehrezrsquos notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text and as embodied in the double name AhmedAmedeo Representing the doubleness of selfhood the protagonistrsquos ldquosplit identityrdquo can be said to correspond to a translation conflict between the memory of his lost ldquooriginal languagerdquo and the curative potential of his adopted language (cf Lakhous 2009) AhmedAmedeo a man in transit in translation is the central component required to solve the murder mystery and at the same time is the indispensable mediator at the narrative level he mediates the clash of cultures between the various characters as well as their disparate views on the lsquotruthrsquo at the metnarrative level he mediates for the reader by providing a more balanced view of events as they unfold through his diary entries which alter-nate with the testimonials of all the other characters

5 The fiction of the translator

AhmedAmedeo as the powerful embodiment of ldquoliving in translationrdquo does not abandon his ldquonativerdquo identity rather he goes beyond the identities carrying ldquothe responsibility of articulating the signifying bridge between contexts and [becom-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 239

has described as a ldquominorizationrdquo process in which the ldquohost bodyrdquo undergoes ldquoa dehistoricization of sorts rendering [hellip] the palimpsest of its potentialities visible and allowing its signifying pluralities to take shape and subsequently assign form to novel historical associationsrdquo (2009 23ndash24)

The original Arabic version of Cimici begins at what for an Italian reader would be the lsquobackrsquo of the book Both the Italian version translated by Francesco Leg-gio and the Arabic version end in the lsquomiddlersquo of the book Thus the space of the translingual writerrsquos in-betweenness materializes in Cimici not only as the obvious division separating the two texts but most importantly as a process of displacement both vertically (from oral story-telling to text) and horizontally (Arabic to Italian) The lsquomeeting in the middlersquo of the two texts is a useful metaphoric construct to bear in mind when considering the mediation at work in Amara Lakhousrsquo second novel Also originally written in Arabic it was released in 2003 in Algeria with the title Kayfa tardalsquou min al-dhirsquoba dūna an talsquoadaka (lsquoHow to be suckled by the she-wolf without getting bittenrsquo) The novel was later re-written in Italian and re-titled Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio) Lakhous emphasises the fact that the Italian version is not lsquosimplyrsquo a translation but an act of re-writing that transcends the limitations of linguistic precision while validating linguistic choices that mimic the voices of the characters

Prima scrivo il mio testo in arabo Poi dico che lo riscrivo in italiano percheacute non si tratta di una semplice auto-traduzione non essendo obbligato a rispettare il testo originale lo ricreo a mio piacimento In tal senso godo di una libertagrave che il tradut-tore normalmente non ha [hellip] Cerco di usare il napoletano il milanese a seconda del linguaggio che usano i diversi personaggi (Lakhous 2005 np)

First I write my text in Arabic Then I say that I re-write it in Italian because it is not simply a case of self-translation as I am not obliged to respect the original text I re-create it as I wish In that sense I enjoy more freedom than a translator normally has [hellip] I try to use Neapolitan or Milanese according to how the dif-ferent characters would use language (Lakhous 2005 my translation)

Further by inscribing within written Italian the trace of oral Arabic Lakhous cre-ates a double palimpsest not only as he says does he lsquoArabize Italian and Italianize Arabicrsquo (2009 137) he also arguably performs an intermodal translation (oral into written)

In the case of transnational narratives such as this one that relate to a cul-turally and linguistically heterogeneous minority group the very affirmation of diversity burdens the creative voice with the additional task of social and cultural interpretation of mediating not only between different spaces but also between different histories In other words in a situation in which cultural and linguistic homogeneity cannot be assumed the characters the author and the readers do

240 Rita Wilson

not necessarily belong either to the same geographical areas mdash as illustrated for example by the different dialects mdash or historical moment as exemplified by dif-ferent migrant (hi)stories The very language in which the novel is written while it is seemingly the lsquonationalrsquo language nevertheless calls for translation because its idiom includes the legacies of many other idioms6

The plot of Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio is shaped around a single apartment building on Piazza Vittorio in the Esquilino suburb of Rome The buildingrsquos residents whose stories interweave offer a microcosm of the intercultural reality of contemporary Rome as they battle over the deteriorating condition of their elevator It is the catalyst for daily clashes between the tenants an out-and-out war that brings to the fore the inability to relate to the other be the lsquootherrsquo a foreigner like Johan Van Marten a Dutch film student who wants to revive 1950s Neorealism by making a movie (titled naturally lsquoClash of Civiliza-tions Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittoriorsquo) or a lsquonativersquo Italian like Antonio Marini a Milanese who has moved to Rome to take up an academic post at La Sapienza University thinks southern Italians are all criminals and believes the unification of Italy was an lsquoirreparable historical mistakersquo (2008 76) In short Scontro can be said to epitomize a lsquonarrative space in which language and identity conflicts become textualizedrsquo (Millaacuten-Varela 2004 52) A distinctive feature of such nar-ratives is the conscious effort to transmit a linguistic and cultural heritage that is articulated through acts of personal and collective memory In this way writers become chroniclers of the displaced whose stories will otherwise go unrecorded (Seyhan 2001 12) and their narratives perform the essential function of giving a voice to lsquoparanationalrsquo communities (Seyhan 2001 10) As Armando Gnisci (2007) notes they have already undertaken lsquoil salto triplorsquo (the triple jump) going beyond multi- and interculturalism and providing a new model of reciprocal education that can be defined as lsquotransculturalrsquo Lakhous offers just such a transcultural out-look on the Italian way of life by representing a mixed and decentred subjectivity that is always in dialogue with cultural otherness

4 Whose truth is it anyway

The constant shifts between the perspectives of the multiethnic cast of characters generate a lsquoplurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses a genuine polyphony of fully valid voicesrsquo (Bakhtin 1984 6) each of which expresses a different opinion on the recent event that has thrown the neighbourhood into disarray the discovery of the body of Lorenzo Manfredini a thug nicknamed lsquoThe Gladiatorrsquo in the buildingrsquos elevator One of the residents Amedeo who has appar-ently disappeared becomes the chief murder suspect The police question every-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 241

one who knows him and each character gets a chapter to relate the truth as he or she knows it (or wants it known) in the form of a deposition to the police By al-lowing the individual voices to take the floor Lakhous offers new perspectives and reveals new social dynamics mdash with a marked emphasis on the conflictual side of these interactions The complexity at the base of urban social relations is further entangled by the need to negotiate the uncertain articulations of racial class and gender differences between both the ldquonativesrdquo and the migrants as well as between the different ethnicities of the migrants

As the testimonials unfold the uncertainty about Amedeorsquos true identity in-creases with the discussion centring around his ldquorealrdquo name Although in Rome everyone calls him Amedeo this is as a result of an initial error on the part of the local barista Sandro who mishears the Arabic pronunciation and inadvertently changes it to an Italian name

quando Sandro mi ha chiesto il mio nome gli ho risposto laquoAhmedraquo Ma lui lrsquoha pronunciato senza la lettera H percheacute non si usa molto nella lingua italiana e alla fine mi ha chiamato Amedersquo che egrave un nome italiano che si puograve abbreviare con Amed (2006 139)

when Sandro asked me my name I answered lsquoAhmedrsquo But he pronounced it with-out the letter lsquohrsquo because lsquohrsquo isnrsquot used much in Italian and in the end he called me Amedersquo which is an Italian name and can be shortened to Amed (2008 99)

On the level of the narrative this slip-up characterizes Sandrorsquos monolingual worldview

The same slip-up however also functions on the level of meta-narrative as a strategic communication aimed directly at the reader a linguistic error that bears the real truth value within Lakhousrsquo economy of meaning The manipulation of the cognate AhmedAmedeo exemplifies Lakhousrsquo narrative strategy from here on the tale that unfolds is one of slight shifts of double entendres in which ap-pearances of familiarity are misleading While such moments of ldquoplayrdquo are inter-spersed throughout the novel often it is not simply language but actual material survival that is at stake these verbal exchanges are power plays as much as they are wordplays The representation of linguistic negotiations (ie translation and mis-translation) between the mix of cultures represented by the characters becomes an internal literary strategy deployed first in order to expose the mechanisms of power and then to subvert them Sandrorsquos error draws attention to a writing pro-cess that Michaela Wolf describes as

ldquothe authorial unmasking of anotherrsquos speech through a language that is ldquodouble-accentedrdquo and ldquodouble-styledrdquo [hellip] through this hybrid construction [hellip] one voice is able to unmask the other within a single discourse It is at this point that authoritative discourse becomes undonerdquo (2000 133)

242 Rita Wilson

The thematic potential of the ldquohybrid constructionrdquo is exploited by Lakhous throughout the novel to make a point not only about the instability of language itself but more particularly about the relationship between names and ldquonationalrdquo identities Not only can language come to ldquomeanrdquo something other than what the speaker intends but cognates and shared roots can cross the delineating boundar-ies of language and national identity thereby destabilizing the distinction between self and other The error caused by the homophony of the two names coincides with a self-translation that has been taking place all along and results in a fortu-itous ldquodoublerdquo identity the re-naming allows the protagonist to construct an Italian life perfectly integrated thanks to his excellent grasp of the Italian language and his generous nature that enable him to become a positive role model and ldquopoint of referencerdquo for all the residents in the condominium and the neighbourhood

In this context translation operates inside the narrative both in the traditional pragmatic sense (in terms of the conversion of language) and in a derivative meta-phorical sense as the narrative symbolically ldquoconvertsrdquo the contested structures of power through strategic intentional moments of linguistic or communicative slippage In the latter case translation is less a distinct operation and more a habi-tus7 in which the breathing space between two languages or between the message intended by the speaker and the message received by the listener becomes a space of latent resistance To make sense of the narrative readers must fill in the gaps by knowing what Sandro does not In some cases this knowledge is linguistic in oth-er cases it requires familiarity with Italian or Arabic cultural discourses and sym-bolic resonances as with Mehrezrsquos notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text and as embodied in the double name AhmedAmedeo Representing the doubleness of selfhood the protagonistrsquos ldquosplit identityrdquo can be said to correspond to a translation conflict between the memory of his lost ldquooriginal languagerdquo and the curative potential of his adopted language (cf Lakhous 2009) AhmedAmedeo a man in transit in translation is the central component required to solve the murder mystery and at the same time is the indispensable mediator at the narrative level he mediates the clash of cultures between the various characters as well as their disparate views on the lsquotruthrsquo at the metnarrative level he mediates for the reader by providing a more balanced view of events as they unfold through his diary entries which alter-nate with the testimonials of all the other characters

5 The fiction of the translator

AhmedAmedeo as the powerful embodiment of ldquoliving in translationrdquo does not abandon his ldquonativerdquo identity rather he goes beyond the identities carrying ldquothe responsibility of articulating the signifying bridge between contexts and [becom-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

240 Rita Wilson

not necessarily belong either to the same geographical areas mdash as illustrated for example by the different dialects mdash or historical moment as exemplified by dif-ferent migrant (hi)stories The very language in which the novel is written while it is seemingly the lsquonationalrsquo language nevertheless calls for translation because its idiom includes the legacies of many other idioms6

The plot of Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio is shaped around a single apartment building on Piazza Vittorio in the Esquilino suburb of Rome The buildingrsquos residents whose stories interweave offer a microcosm of the intercultural reality of contemporary Rome as they battle over the deteriorating condition of their elevator It is the catalyst for daily clashes between the tenants an out-and-out war that brings to the fore the inability to relate to the other be the lsquootherrsquo a foreigner like Johan Van Marten a Dutch film student who wants to revive 1950s Neorealism by making a movie (titled naturally lsquoClash of Civiliza-tions Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittoriorsquo) or a lsquonativersquo Italian like Antonio Marini a Milanese who has moved to Rome to take up an academic post at La Sapienza University thinks southern Italians are all criminals and believes the unification of Italy was an lsquoirreparable historical mistakersquo (2008 76) In short Scontro can be said to epitomize a lsquonarrative space in which language and identity conflicts become textualizedrsquo (Millaacuten-Varela 2004 52) A distinctive feature of such nar-ratives is the conscious effort to transmit a linguistic and cultural heritage that is articulated through acts of personal and collective memory In this way writers become chroniclers of the displaced whose stories will otherwise go unrecorded (Seyhan 2001 12) and their narratives perform the essential function of giving a voice to lsquoparanationalrsquo communities (Seyhan 2001 10) As Armando Gnisci (2007) notes they have already undertaken lsquoil salto triplorsquo (the triple jump) going beyond multi- and interculturalism and providing a new model of reciprocal education that can be defined as lsquotransculturalrsquo Lakhous offers just such a transcultural out-look on the Italian way of life by representing a mixed and decentred subjectivity that is always in dialogue with cultural otherness

4 Whose truth is it anyway

The constant shifts between the perspectives of the multiethnic cast of characters generate a lsquoplurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses a genuine polyphony of fully valid voicesrsquo (Bakhtin 1984 6) each of which expresses a different opinion on the recent event that has thrown the neighbourhood into disarray the discovery of the body of Lorenzo Manfredini a thug nicknamed lsquoThe Gladiatorrsquo in the buildingrsquos elevator One of the residents Amedeo who has appar-ently disappeared becomes the chief murder suspect The police question every-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 241

one who knows him and each character gets a chapter to relate the truth as he or she knows it (or wants it known) in the form of a deposition to the police By al-lowing the individual voices to take the floor Lakhous offers new perspectives and reveals new social dynamics mdash with a marked emphasis on the conflictual side of these interactions The complexity at the base of urban social relations is further entangled by the need to negotiate the uncertain articulations of racial class and gender differences between both the ldquonativesrdquo and the migrants as well as between the different ethnicities of the migrants

As the testimonials unfold the uncertainty about Amedeorsquos true identity in-creases with the discussion centring around his ldquorealrdquo name Although in Rome everyone calls him Amedeo this is as a result of an initial error on the part of the local barista Sandro who mishears the Arabic pronunciation and inadvertently changes it to an Italian name

quando Sandro mi ha chiesto il mio nome gli ho risposto laquoAhmedraquo Ma lui lrsquoha pronunciato senza la lettera H percheacute non si usa molto nella lingua italiana e alla fine mi ha chiamato Amedersquo che egrave un nome italiano che si puograve abbreviare con Amed (2006 139)

when Sandro asked me my name I answered lsquoAhmedrsquo But he pronounced it with-out the letter lsquohrsquo because lsquohrsquo isnrsquot used much in Italian and in the end he called me Amedersquo which is an Italian name and can be shortened to Amed (2008 99)

On the level of the narrative this slip-up characterizes Sandrorsquos monolingual worldview

The same slip-up however also functions on the level of meta-narrative as a strategic communication aimed directly at the reader a linguistic error that bears the real truth value within Lakhousrsquo economy of meaning The manipulation of the cognate AhmedAmedeo exemplifies Lakhousrsquo narrative strategy from here on the tale that unfolds is one of slight shifts of double entendres in which ap-pearances of familiarity are misleading While such moments of ldquoplayrdquo are inter-spersed throughout the novel often it is not simply language but actual material survival that is at stake these verbal exchanges are power plays as much as they are wordplays The representation of linguistic negotiations (ie translation and mis-translation) between the mix of cultures represented by the characters becomes an internal literary strategy deployed first in order to expose the mechanisms of power and then to subvert them Sandrorsquos error draws attention to a writing pro-cess that Michaela Wolf describes as

ldquothe authorial unmasking of anotherrsquos speech through a language that is ldquodouble-accentedrdquo and ldquodouble-styledrdquo [hellip] through this hybrid construction [hellip] one voice is able to unmask the other within a single discourse It is at this point that authoritative discourse becomes undonerdquo (2000 133)

242 Rita Wilson

The thematic potential of the ldquohybrid constructionrdquo is exploited by Lakhous throughout the novel to make a point not only about the instability of language itself but more particularly about the relationship between names and ldquonationalrdquo identities Not only can language come to ldquomeanrdquo something other than what the speaker intends but cognates and shared roots can cross the delineating boundar-ies of language and national identity thereby destabilizing the distinction between self and other The error caused by the homophony of the two names coincides with a self-translation that has been taking place all along and results in a fortu-itous ldquodoublerdquo identity the re-naming allows the protagonist to construct an Italian life perfectly integrated thanks to his excellent grasp of the Italian language and his generous nature that enable him to become a positive role model and ldquopoint of referencerdquo for all the residents in the condominium and the neighbourhood

In this context translation operates inside the narrative both in the traditional pragmatic sense (in terms of the conversion of language) and in a derivative meta-phorical sense as the narrative symbolically ldquoconvertsrdquo the contested structures of power through strategic intentional moments of linguistic or communicative slippage In the latter case translation is less a distinct operation and more a habi-tus7 in which the breathing space between two languages or between the message intended by the speaker and the message received by the listener becomes a space of latent resistance To make sense of the narrative readers must fill in the gaps by knowing what Sandro does not In some cases this knowledge is linguistic in oth-er cases it requires familiarity with Italian or Arabic cultural discourses and sym-bolic resonances as with Mehrezrsquos notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text and as embodied in the double name AhmedAmedeo Representing the doubleness of selfhood the protagonistrsquos ldquosplit identityrdquo can be said to correspond to a translation conflict between the memory of his lost ldquooriginal languagerdquo and the curative potential of his adopted language (cf Lakhous 2009) AhmedAmedeo a man in transit in translation is the central component required to solve the murder mystery and at the same time is the indispensable mediator at the narrative level he mediates the clash of cultures between the various characters as well as their disparate views on the lsquotruthrsquo at the metnarrative level he mediates for the reader by providing a more balanced view of events as they unfold through his diary entries which alter-nate with the testimonials of all the other characters

5 The fiction of the translator

AhmedAmedeo as the powerful embodiment of ldquoliving in translationrdquo does not abandon his ldquonativerdquo identity rather he goes beyond the identities carrying ldquothe responsibility of articulating the signifying bridge between contexts and [becom-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 241

one who knows him and each character gets a chapter to relate the truth as he or she knows it (or wants it known) in the form of a deposition to the police By al-lowing the individual voices to take the floor Lakhous offers new perspectives and reveals new social dynamics mdash with a marked emphasis on the conflictual side of these interactions The complexity at the base of urban social relations is further entangled by the need to negotiate the uncertain articulations of racial class and gender differences between both the ldquonativesrdquo and the migrants as well as between the different ethnicities of the migrants

As the testimonials unfold the uncertainty about Amedeorsquos true identity in-creases with the discussion centring around his ldquorealrdquo name Although in Rome everyone calls him Amedeo this is as a result of an initial error on the part of the local barista Sandro who mishears the Arabic pronunciation and inadvertently changes it to an Italian name

quando Sandro mi ha chiesto il mio nome gli ho risposto laquoAhmedraquo Ma lui lrsquoha pronunciato senza la lettera H percheacute non si usa molto nella lingua italiana e alla fine mi ha chiamato Amedersquo che egrave un nome italiano che si puograve abbreviare con Amed (2006 139)

when Sandro asked me my name I answered lsquoAhmedrsquo But he pronounced it with-out the letter lsquohrsquo because lsquohrsquo isnrsquot used much in Italian and in the end he called me Amedersquo which is an Italian name and can be shortened to Amed (2008 99)

On the level of the narrative this slip-up characterizes Sandrorsquos monolingual worldview

The same slip-up however also functions on the level of meta-narrative as a strategic communication aimed directly at the reader a linguistic error that bears the real truth value within Lakhousrsquo economy of meaning The manipulation of the cognate AhmedAmedeo exemplifies Lakhousrsquo narrative strategy from here on the tale that unfolds is one of slight shifts of double entendres in which ap-pearances of familiarity are misleading While such moments of ldquoplayrdquo are inter-spersed throughout the novel often it is not simply language but actual material survival that is at stake these verbal exchanges are power plays as much as they are wordplays The representation of linguistic negotiations (ie translation and mis-translation) between the mix of cultures represented by the characters becomes an internal literary strategy deployed first in order to expose the mechanisms of power and then to subvert them Sandrorsquos error draws attention to a writing pro-cess that Michaela Wolf describes as

ldquothe authorial unmasking of anotherrsquos speech through a language that is ldquodouble-accentedrdquo and ldquodouble-styledrdquo [hellip] through this hybrid construction [hellip] one voice is able to unmask the other within a single discourse It is at this point that authoritative discourse becomes undonerdquo (2000 133)

242 Rita Wilson

The thematic potential of the ldquohybrid constructionrdquo is exploited by Lakhous throughout the novel to make a point not only about the instability of language itself but more particularly about the relationship between names and ldquonationalrdquo identities Not only can language come to ldquomeanrdquo something other than what the speaker intends but cognates and shared roots can cross the delineating boundar-ies of language and national identity thereby destabilizing the distinction between self and other The error caused by the homophony of the two names coincides with a self-translation that has been taking place all along and results in a fortu-itous ldquodoublerdquo identity the re-naming allows the protagonist to construct an Italian life perfectly integrated thanks to his excellent grasp of the Italian language and his generous nature that enable him to become a positive role model and ldquopoint of referencerdquo for all the residents in the condominium and the neighbourhood

In this context translation operates inside the narrative both in the traditional pragmatic sense (in terms of the conversion of language) and in a derivative meta-phorical sense as the narrative symbolically ldquoconvertsrdquo the contested structures of power through strategic intentional moments of linguistic or communicative slippage In the latter case translation is less a distinct operation and more a habi-tus7 in which the breathing space between two languages or between the message intended by the speaker and the message received by the listener becomes a space of latent resistance To make sense of the narrative readers must fill in the gaps by knowing what Sandro does not In some cases this knowledge is linguistic in oth-er cases it requires familiarity with Italian or Arabic cultural discourses and sym-bolic resonances as with Mehrezrsquos notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text and as embodied in the double name AhmedAmedeo Representing the doubleness of selfhood the protagonistrsquos ldquosplit identityrdquo can be said to correspond to a translation conflict between the memory of his lost ldquooriginal languagerdquo and the curative potential of his adopted language (cf Lakhous 2009) AhmedAmedeo a man in transit in translation is the central component required to solve the murder mystery and at the same time is the indispensable mediator at the narrative level he mediates the clash of cultures between the various characters as well as their disparate views on the lsquotruthrsquo at the metnarrative level he mediates for the reader by providing a more balanced view of events as they unfold through his diary entries which alter-nate with the testimonials of all the other characters

5 The fiction of the translator

AhmedAmedeo as the powerful embodiment of ldquoliving in translationrdquo does not abandon his ldquonativerdquo identity rather he goes beyond the identities carrying ldquothe responsibility of articulating the signifying bridge between contexts and [becom-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

242 Rita Wilson

The thematic potential of the ldquohybrid constructionrdquo is exploited by Lakhous throughout the novel to make a point not only about the instability of language itself but more particularly about the relationship between names and ldquonationalrdquo identities Not only can language come to ldquomeanrdquo something other than what the speaker intends but cognates and shared roots can cross the delineating boundar-ies of language and national identity thereby destabilizing the distinction between self and other The error caused by the homophony of the two names coincides with a self-translation that has been taking place all along and results in a fortu-itous ldquodoublerdquo identity the re-naming allows the protagonist to construct an Italian life perfectly integrated thanks to his excellent grasp of the Italian language and his generous nature that enable him to become a positive role model and ldquopoint of referencerdquo for all the residents in the condominium and the neighbourhood

In this context translation operates inside the narrative both in the traditional pragmatic sense (in terms of the conversion of language) and in a derivative meta-phorical sense as the narrative symbolically ldquoconvertsrdquo the contested structures of power through strategic intentional moments of linguistic or communicative slippage In the latter case translation is less a distinct operation and more a habi-tus7 in which the breathing space between two languages or between the message intended by the speaker and the message received by the listener becomes a space of latent resistance To make sense of the narrative readers must fill in the gaps by knowing what Sandro does not In some cases this knowledge is linguistic in oth-er cases it requires familiarity with Italian or Arabic cultural discourses and sym-bolic resonances as with Mehrezrsquos notion of the ldquodoublerdquo text and as embodied in the double name AhmedAmedeo Representing the doubleness of selfhood the protagonistrsquos ldquosplit identityrdquo can be said to correspond to a translation conflict between the memory of his lost ldquooriginal languagerdquo and the curative potential of his adopted language (cf Lakhous 2009) AhmedAmedeo a man in transit in translation is the central component required to solve the murder mystery and at the same time is the indispensable mediator at the narrative level he mediates the clash of cultures between the various characters as well as their disparate views on the lsquotruthrsquo at the metnarrative level he mediates for the reader by providing a more balanced view of events as they unfold through his diary entries which alter-nate with the testimonials of all the other characters

5 The fiction of the translator

AhmedAmedeo as the powerful embodiment of ldquoliving in translationrdquo does not abandon his ldquonativerdquo identity rather he goes beyond the identities carrying ldquothe responsibility of articulating the signifying bridge between contexts and [becom-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 243

ing] author of a fragmented translation that is both linguistic and culturalrdquo (Parati 2005 122) Through the character of AhmedAmedeo Lakhous places a special emphasis on translation as an essential component of an efficient intercultural pro-cess and of a plural identity both in the individual and in the collective domain

Lakousrsquo fictional translator occupies a central role in connecting two worlds in trying to build a dialogue to create an equal interchange between cultures As well as being the lsquocultural mediatorrsquo par excellence AhmedAmedeo is also a professional translator and interpreter working at the Supreme Court in Algiers as a translator from French into Arabic before migrating to Italy (2006 164 2008 115) The choice of a translator as the main character mdash a feature of several contemporary novels focusing on conflicting intercultural interactions 8 mdash intriguingly emphasises the complex implications of lsquotranslatingrsquo onersquos self from one culture to another In this case his task is not only to mediate between languages and cultures but also to act as the locus (or meeting place) of internalised dispositions and societal norms mdash lsquoa figure who is emblematic of the world today someone who occupies the liminal space in between cultures who operates from a position of plurality and who car-ries out a role that is charged with immense responsibilityrsquo (Bassnett 1999 213)

Tanta gente considera il proprio lavoro come una punizione quotidiana Io in-vece amo il mio lavoro di traduttore La traduzione egrave un viaggio per mare da una riva allrsquoaltra Qualche volta mi considero un contrabbandiere attraverso le fron-tiere della lingua con un bottino di parole idee immagini e metafore (2006 155)

So many people consider their work a daily punishment Whereas I love my work as a translator Translation is a journey over a sea from one shore to the other Sometimes I think of myself as a smuggler I cross the frontiers of language with my booty of words ideas images and metaphors (2008 109)

One insight that clearly emerges from even a superficial reading of Scontro is that the second language serves as a new mode of comprehending the environment one that usually acquires psychological connotations other than those associated with the first language or lsquomother tonguersquo

6 From the mother tongue to the linguistic mother9

The lsquomother tonguersquo a concept that exists in many languages is commonly per-ceived as a positive symbol of cultural pride as a means of maintaining practical and emotional contact with the homeland The relationship between identity and the mother tongue is extremely strong since identity and self-concept develop over a long period usually relying on the surrounding language In a way the new

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

244 Rita Wilson

language functions as new pliable material waiting to be used free from conven-tions rigid connotations and emotional barriers

Language mdash as the instrument used to reformulate the cultural heritage and transmit it to succeeding generations mdash is thematized throughout Scontro Most notably the centrality of language in the construction of identity is manifested in AhmedAmedeorsquos representation of his adopted language as a primary form of nourishment

Sono come un neonato ho bisogno del latte tutti i giorni Lrsquoitaliano egrave il mio latte quotidiano [hellip] Mi allatto della lupa insieme ai due orfanelli Romolo e Remo Adoro la lupa non posso fare a meno del suo latte (2006 155 168)

Irsquom like a newborn I need milk every day Italian is my daily milk [hellip] I suckle on the wolf with the two orphans Romulus and Remus I adore the wolf I canrsquot do without her milk (2008 109 118)

The moment of transmission of the language and the basic knowledge required to survive is depicted as a symbolic suckling

Ormai conosco Roma come vi fossi nato e non lrsquoavessi mai lasciata Ho il diritto di chiedermi sono un bastardo come i gemelli Romolo e Remo oppure sono un figlio adottivo La domanda fondamentale egrave come farmi allattare dalla lupa senza che mi morda (2006 142)

By now I know Rome as if I had been born here and never left I have the right to wonder am I a bastard like the twins Romulus and Remus or an adopted son The basic question is how to be suckled by the [she-]wolf without being bitten (2008 101)

What distinguishes AhmedAmedeo from the other translingual characters in the book is precisely his relationship with the host language mdash Italian considered his lsquonuova dimorarsquo (2006 157 lsquonew dwelling placersquo 2008 110) The intertextual ref-erence to noted translingual writer Emil Cioran Romanian-born but French by adoption lsquoNon abitiamo un paese ma una linguarsquo (2006 157) lsquoWe inhabit not a country but a languagersquo (2008 110) invites readers to consider the manifold nu-ances of what it means to live in different languages The connotation of lsquodwelling in a lsquonewrsquo languagersquo reminds us once again of the translational process undergone by the migrant We are also reminded that such a process offers the possibility of an interlinguistic mediation of imagining learning understanding and perform-ing other languages A task akin to the kind of dialogue that according to Walter Benjamin expresses the lsquoreciprocal relationship between languagesrsquo instigates a lsquotransformation and a renewal of something livingrsquo and particularly a transforma-tion of the lsquolanguage of the translatorrsquo (1969 72ndash3) It follows that the function of translingual literature is not primarily a pragmatic but an aesthetic and an ethical

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 245

one Its aim is more symbolic than realistic it symbolizes the variety the contact and the crossing of cultures and languages

Hence at the centre of Lakhousrsquo plot is the complex task of revealing onersquos own cultural world to people from different cultural contexts The difficulties of mediating between cultures are represented by dramatizing the contact between languages as for example in the Italian lessons Stefania gives to Bengali women (2006 156ndash157) or the interaction between the Milanese academic and the Dutch student (2006 109ndash110) The translative nature of the translingual experience is also evident in the self-conscious processes of intralingual and interlingual trans-lation (Jakobson 2004) that dominate the narrative space seen in the occasional humorous anecdote of linguistic incompetence A characteristic example which also highlights the polylingual nature of text is that of Benedetta Esposito the Neapolitan concierge who is convinced that Parviz a political refugee from Iran is a rude Albanian scoundrel who responds to her greeting with

male parole nella sua lingua Non mi ricordo quella parola che dice sempre forse mersa o mersis Insomma lrsquoimportante egrave che questa parola vuole dire cazzo in albanese e si usa per insultare la gente (2006 48)

a nasty word in his language I donrsquot remember exactly the word he always says maybe mersa or mersis Anyway the point is this word means ldquoshitrdquo in Albanian and is used as an insult (2008 11)

In works like Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio translation is an integral component of the narrative code generating plot and meaning This sug-gests an understanding of (a theory of) translation in which it is not equivalence but the necessary lack thereof that reveals and delivers the actual truth value of the statement These are texts in which nearly any statement may have a double meaning an inside joke between author and reader delivered at the characterrsquos expense (as in the Benedetta example) In the thematic representation of com-municative breakdown we see language recognizing its own inevitable fiction acknowledging how tenuous is the absolute link between symbol and referent how easily it is obstructed In this and doubtless many other translingual texts translation works inside the narrative to negotiate between different languages and cultures between author and reader and even between the conflicting layers of affiliation and identity that the author brings to the text

7 Migrations translations rewriting

In his new lsquohomersquo Lakhousrsquo fictional translator becomes a cultural mediator whose lsquoactivities are inscribed in cultural overlappings which imply differencersquo

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

246 Rita Wilson

(Wolf 2000 142) The transcultural interaction that results from these activities permits us to view so-called lsquoin-betweenrsquo spaces as lsquotranslationalrsquo spaces spaces where relationships identities and interactions are shaped through concrete pro-cesses of cultural translation A lsquotranslationalrsquo view of an intercultural situation makes visible those all too easily forgotten elements inherent in any intercultural communication understanding mediating misunderstanding resistance etc mdash it makes complexity more transparent and thus easier to handle because we can deconstruct it into component parts

Lakhousrsquo writing written in Italian but located lsquobetween domains between forms between homes and between languagesrsquo (Said 1994 332ndash333) is lsquoout of placersquo with respect to the literary canon It is in this sense that it contributes to the lsquodecentringrsquo of the historical narrative of Italian metropolitan centres which is being disrupted by people shifting among multiple locations and whose diasporic sensibilities refashion prior definitions of national canons notions of citizenship and political representations Migration to and from Europe is not a new phenom-enon but translingual narratives explore the metaphoric dimension of migration as a form of double imagination and critical awareness where borders are a fic-tional dimension of the mind upon which to construct new forms of belonging As Lakhousrsquo perceptively writes lsquoIt appears literature knows no frontiers With it we build bridges through it civilizations and peoples meetrsquo (2009 137)

In this context translingual narratives have the same crucial role to play as the one that Michael Cronin identifies for translation in the era of globalization that is to lsquobring foreign elements extraneous ideas fresh images into cultures with-out which the kick start of otherness remains stalled in an eternity of mediocrityrsquo (2004 94) The wonder of this conceptual alterity can both give pleasure mdash if we use our affective imaginations to empathize (translate ourselves into the situation-ality of the other) mdash and stimulate learning mdash if we use our intellect to figure out the lsquofreshrsquo metaphors It is among other things this possibility of renewal that fuels David Heldrsquos vision of a lsquocultural cosmopolitanismrsquo that has at its core lsquothe ability to stand outside a singular location (the location of onersquos birth land up-bringing conversion) and to mediate traditionsrsquo (2002 58)

Lakhous has stated that choosing to write in Italian is not primarily a prag-matic choice but an aesthetic and an ethical one Writing in the lsquonewrsquo language thus becomes an act of affirmation as translingual narrators position themselves as active participants in the destination culture The emergent voices of these writ-ers challenge the narratives of the past claiming or disclaiming difference in their own terms When these voices are shown examined teased out by an interdis-ciplinary approach which makes use of lsquotransnationaltranslationalrsquo approaches then they can be new sites in which to contest homogeneity By comparing and interpreting translingual writing especially those narratives which carry the in-

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 247

fluence of an oral tradition a new methodology can be introduced into literary critique which can enhance and foster an intercultural dialogue Further reading transnational narratives can lead to greater cultural self-knowledge By entering into contact with and seeking to understand the ldquonetwork of connections between the events the things and the people of the worldrdquo (Calvino 1988 105) that marks these stories we become for a time transcultural too as we adapt our own con-ceptual systems and follow the shifting viewpoints from which the complexities of acts of migration turn into the complexities of constructing cultural identities

Notes

1 See for example Kellman (2003) Meylaerts (2006) Hokenson and Munson (2007) Follow-ing Kellman I use the term ldquotranslingualrdquo to refer to writers who ldquowrite in more than one lan-guage or in a language other than their primary onerdquo and who by ldquoflaunt[ing] their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be bornrdquo (Kellman 2003 ix) are able toldquocross overrdquo into new linguistic identities

2 Lionnet (1995) has shown that postcolonial identities are necessarily meacutetisseacutees in order to braid the multiple aspects that constitute them Meacutetissage as a multi-voiced practice enables writers to privilege the differences that living in multiple languages afford them and to shape hybrid identities Tejaswini has labeled postcolonial people as ldquopeople living in translationrdquo (1992 36) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has established the impossibility for the translator to ldquotranslate from a position of monolinguist superiorityrdquo (2000 410) This impossibility demon-strates the necessity for linguistic diversity and flexibility in order to engage in ldquothe most inti-mate act of readingrdquo that translation constitutes (2000 409)

3 The emergence of transnationalism as a category of cultural analysis became evident in the mid‐1990s in contexts that brought together social sciences and literary and cultural studies under the impact of the communication revolution and in close relation with the immense in-terest in globalization as a new kind of phenomenon that has already started to radically change our world While political science is concerned mainly with the effects of the transnational on international relations and the nation‐state the chief focus of sociology is on the making of ldquotransnational identitiesrdquo across international borders and the way in which they act upon the mechanisms of social relations The humanities in their turn stress the idea of ldquoborderrdquo and use the term ldquotransnationalrdquo in a much broader sense lsquoto signal the fluidity with which ideas objects capital and people now move across borders and boundariesrsquo (Basch Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc 1994 27) See also Appadurai lsquoGlobal Ethnoscapes Notes and Queries for Transnational Anthropologyrsquo (1996 48ndash65)

4 To mention two of the most recent examples in translation studies where a critique of Bhabharsquos approach to translation is made Batchelor (2009 246) reflects on Bhabharsquos tendency to assert an overall meaning to the notion of cultural translation by inserting it repeatedly into the discussion without ever providing a clear definition whereas Pym (2010 145) criticizes Bhabharsquos lack of reference to translation theories prior to Walter Benjaminrsquos ldquoThe Task of the

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

248 Rita Wilson

Translatorrdquo See also the Forum on Cultural Translation in Translation Studies (July 2009 2 2 pp 196ndash219 and Jan 2010 31 pp 94ndash110)

5 While Deleuze and Guattari attribute the ldquorevolutionaryrdquo value of minor literatures to a kind of collective authorship or enunciation they also suggest that they have the capacity to reinvigo-rate a reified literary language making it ldquovibrate with a new intensityrdquo through deterritorializa-tion (1986 17 18 22)

6 Many studies have described how the novel has historically allowed people to imagine the ldquospecial communityrdquo that is the lsquonationrsquo In Imagined Communities Benedict Anderson pointed to the correspondence between lsquothe lsquointerior time of the novelrsquo and the lsquolsquoexteriorrsquo time of the readerrsquos everyday lifersquo which lsquogives a hypnotic confirmation of the solidity of a single com-munity embracing characters author and readers moving onward through calendrical timersquo (1991 27) Transnational narratives challenge the notion of a lsquosinglersquorsquosamersquo community embrac-ing characters author and readers

7 As Moira Inghilleri notes ldquoit is through the habitus mdash embodied dispositions acquired through individualsrsquo social and biological trajectories and continually shaped and negotiated vis-agrave-vis fields mdash that social agents establish and consolidate their positions in social spacerdquo (2008 280)

8 To mention just a few written in English Leila Aboulela The Translator (Edinburgh Ed-inburgh University Press 1999) John Crowley The Translator (New York William Morrow 2002) Ward Just The Translator (Boston New York Houghton Mifflin 1991) John Le Carreacute The Mission Song (New York Little Brown and Company 2006) See also Wilson (2007)

9 To borrow an expression from another transnationaltranslingual writer Yoko Tawada (2006)

References

Anderson Benedict 1991 Imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nation-alism London and New York Verso

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at Large Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Minneapolis MN University of Minnesota Press

Bakhtin Mikhail 1984 Problems of Dostoevskyrsquos Poetics tr C Emerson Minneapolis Univer-sity of Michigan Press

Bandia Paul 2009 ldquoTranslation Matters Linguistic and Cultural Representationrdquo J Inggs and L Meintjes eds Translation Studies in Africa LondonNew York Continuum 1ndash20

Bassnett Susan and Trivedi Harish eds 1999 Post-Colonial Translation Theory and Practice London and New York Routledge

Bassnett Susan 1999 ldquoTranslation 2000 mdash Difference and Diversityrdquo Textus XII 213ndash218Basch Linda Nina Glick Schiller and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Transna-

tional Projects Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialized Nation‐States Amsterdam Gordon and Breach

Batchelor Kathryn 2009 Decolonizing Translation Francophone African Novels in English Translation Manchester St Jerome Publishing

Benjamin Walter [1923]1969 Illuminations tr Harry Zohn New York Schocken Books

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

Cultural mediation through translingual narrative 249

Bhabha Homi 1994 The Location of Culture London and New York RoutledgeCalvino Italo 1988 Six Memos for the Next Millennium tr Patrick Creagh Cambridge Harvard

University PressChambers Iain 2002 ldquoCitizenship Language and Modernityrdquo PMLA 1171 24ndash31Chatzidimitriou Ioanna 2009 ldquoSelf-Translation as Minorization Process Nancy Hustonrsquos

LimbesLimbordquo SubStance 38 2 119 22ndash42Cronin Michael 2002 ldquo lsquoThou shalt be One with the Birdsrsquo Translation connexity and the new

global orderrdquo Language and Intercultural Communication 2 2 86ndash95Deleuze Giles and Guattari Felix 1986 Kafka Towards a Minor Literature tr Dana Polan

Minneapolis University of Minnesota PressEsposito Claudia 2011 ldquoLiterature is language An interview with Amara Lakhousrdquo Journal of

Postcolonial Writing i 1ndash13Even-Zohar Itamar 1990 ldquoPolysystem Theoryrdquo Poetics Today 111 (spring) 9ndash26Gentzler Edwin 2008 Translation and Identity in the Americas London RoutledgeGnisci Armando 2007 Editorial Kumagrave Creolizzare lrdquoEuropa 13 httpwwwdispletuniro-

ma1itkumaeditoriale13html (retrieved 8 July 2009)Held David 2002 ldquoCulture and Political Community National Global and Cosmopolitanrdquo

Steven Vertovec and Robin Cohen eds Conceiving Cosmopolitanism Theory Context Practice Oxford Oxford University Press 2002 48ndash58

Hermans Theo ed 2006 Translating Others vol IndashII Manchester St JeromeInghilleri Moira 2008 ldquoSociological Approachesrdquo Mona Baker and Gabriella Saldanha eds Rout-

ledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies New York and London Routledge 2008 279ndash282Hokenson Jan Walsh and Munson Marcella 2007 The Bilingual Text History and Theory of

Literary Self-Translation Manchester St Jerome PublishingJakobson Roman [1959] 2004 ldquoOn linguistic aspects of translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The

Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 138ndash143Kellman StevenG 2003 Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft Lin-

coln University of Nebraska PressLakhous Amara 1999 al-baqq wa-l-qursan Le cimici e il pirata tr Francesco Loriggio Rome

ArlemLakhous Amara 2005 ldquoIntervista con Ubax Cristina Ali Farahrdquo El-ghibli 1 7 httpwwwel-

ghibliprovinciabolognaitid_1-issue_01_07-section_6-index_pos_1htmlLakhous Amara 2006 Scontro di civiltagrave per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio Rome Edizioni eoLakhous Amara 2008 Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio tr Anne Gold-

stein New York Europa EditionsLakhous Amara 2009 ldquoPiazza Vittorio A Cure for Homesicknessrdquo tr M Reynolds Review

Literature and Arts of the Americas 42 1 134ndash137Lionnet Franccediloise 1995 Postcolonial Representations Women Literature Identity Ithaca Cor-

nell University PressMehrez Samia 1998 ldquoTranslation and the Postcolonial Experience The Francophone North

African Textrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed Rethinking Translation Discourse Subjectivity Ideol-ogy New York and London Routledge 1998 121ndash138

Meylaerts Reine 2006 ldquoHeterolingualism inand translation How legitimate are the Other and hisher language An introductionrdquo Target 181 1ndash15

Mignolo Walter 2000 Local HistoriesGlobal Designs Coloniality Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 278ndash311

250 Rita Wilson

Millaacuten-Varela Carmen 2004 ldquoHearing voices James Joyce narrative voice and minority trans-lationrdquo Language and Literature 131 37ndash54

Niranjana Tejaswini 1992 Siting Translation History Post-structuralism and the Colonial Con-text Berkeley University of California Press

Parati Graziella 2005 Migration Italy The Art of Talking Back in a Destination Culture Toronto University of Toronto

Pym Anthony 2010 Exploring Translation Theories LondonNew York RoutledgeSaid Edward 1994 Culture and Imperialism London and New York VintageSeyhan Azade 2001 Writing Outside the Nation Princeton and Oxford Princeton University

PressSimon Sherry and St-Pierre Paul eds 2000 Changing the Terms Translating in the Postcolonial

Era Ottawa University of Ottawa PressSnell-Hornby Mary 2000 ldquoCommunicating in the global village On language translation and

cultural identityrdquo in C Schaumlffner ed 2000 Translation in the global village Clevedon Mul-tilingual Matters 11ndash28

Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty ldquoThe Politics of Translationrdquo Lawrence Venuti ed The Translation Studies Reader New York Routledge 2004 397ndash416

Tawada Yoko 2006 ldquoFrom Mother Tongue to Linguistic Motherrdquo tr Rachel McNichol Manoa 181 139ndash143

Tymoczko Maria 2003 ldquoIdeology and the Position of the Translator In What Sense is aTranslator ldquoIn Betweenrdquordquo in Mariacutea Calzada-Peacuterez (ed) Apropos of Ideology Manchester UK

Northampton MA St Jerome Publishing 181ndash201Tymoczko Maria 2000 ldquoTranslations of Themselves The Contours of Postcolonial Fictionrdquo S

Simon and P St-Pierre eds Changing the Terms Translating in the Postcolonial Era Ottawa University of Ottawa Press 147ndash163

Tymoczko Maria 1999 ldquoPost-colonial Writing and Literary Translationrdquo Susan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi eds Post-colonial Translation Theory and Practice London Routledge 1999 19ndash40

Wilson Rita 2007 ldquoThe Fiction of the Translatorrdquo Journal of Intercultural Studies 28 4 381ndash395Wolf Michaela 2000 ldquoThe Third Space in Postcolonial Representationrdquo Sherry Simon and Paul

St Pierre eds Changing the Terms Translating in the Postcolonial Era Ottawa University of Ottawa Press 127ndash145

Authorrsquos address

Rita WilsonSchool of Languages Cultures and LinguisticsMonash UniversityClayton CampusVictoria 3800Australia

ritawilsonmonashedu