“No More Translations”: Uncounting Languages in Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear
Abstract Following recent suggestions that multilingual narratives be studied for their narratological features, this essay reads Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2011) as one instance where narratological features are refashioned to allegorize postmonolingual translation. In lieu of rely...
Published in: | PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Modern Language Association (MLA)
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1632/s0030812923000561 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0030812923000561 |
id |
crmla:10.1632/s0030812923000561 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crmla:10.1632/s0030812923000561 2024-06-09T07:49:09+00:00 “No More Translations”: Uncounting Languages in Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear Yeung, Penny 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1632/s0030812923000561 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0030812923000561 en eng Modern Language Association (MLA) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America volume 138, issue 3, page 639-651 ISSN 0030-8129 1938-1530 journal-article 2023 crmla https://doi.org/10.1632/s0030812923000561 2024-05-16T14:04:37Z Abstract Following recent suggestions that multilingual narratives be studied for their narratological features, this essay reads Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2011) as one instance where narratological features are refashioned to allegorize postmonolingual translation. In lieu of relying on narrative perspectival shifts, the novel merges the voices of its animal and human characters. Examining the consequent deconstruction of numerous binaries—animal/human, speech/writing, past/present—the essay tracks the novel's disarticulation of countable languages as they have been imagined in biological, phonocentric, and genealogical terms. The uncounting of languages alongside the novel's rethinking of maternity enables a reading of Memoirs as an antinarrative that counters the linguistic family romance (as articulated by Yasemin Yildiz) encapsulated by the trope of the mother tongue. A narratological reading of Memoirs reveals the structure through which monolingualism is undermined and the emergence of a postmonolingual subject made possible. Article in Journal/Newspaper polar bear PMLA - Modern Language Association Publications PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 138 3 639 651 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PMLA - Modern Language Association Publications |
op_collection_id |
crmla |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Following recent suggestions that multilingual narratives be studied for their narratological features, this essay reads Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2011) as one instance where narratological features are refashioned to allegorize postmonolingual translation. In lieu of relying on narrative perspectival shifts, the novel merges the voices of its animal and human characters. Examining the consequent deconstruction of numerous binaries—animal/human, speech/writing, past/present—the essay tracks the novel's disarticulation of countable languages as they have been imagined in biological, phonocentric, and genealogical terms. The uncounting of languages alongside the novel's rethinking of maternity enables a reading of Memoirs as an antinarrative that counters the linguistic family romance (as articulated by Yasemin Yildiz) encapsulated by the trope of the mother tongue. A narratological reading of Memoirs reveals the structure through which monolingualism is undermined and the emergence of a postmonolingual subject made possible. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Yeung, Penny |
spellingShingle |
Yeung, Penny “No More Translations”: Uncounting Languages in Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear |
author_facet |
Yeung, Penny |
author_sort |
Yeung, Penny |
title |
“No More Translations”: Uncounting Languages in Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear |
title_short |
“No More Translations”: Uncounting Languages in Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear |
title_full |
“No More Translations”: Uncounting Languages in Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear |
title_fullStr |
“No More Translations”: Uncounting Languages in Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear |
title_full_unstemmed |
“No More Translations”: Uncounting Languages in Yoko Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear |
title_sort |
“no more translations”: uncounting languages in yoko tawada's memoirs of a polar bear |
publisher |
Modern Language Association (MLA) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1632/s0030812923000561 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0030812923000561 |
genre |
polar bear |
genre_facet |
polar bear |
op_source |
PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America volume 138, issue 3, page 639-651 ISSN 0030-8129 1938-1530 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1632/s0030812923000561 |
container_title |
PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America |
container_volume |
138 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
639 |
op_container_end_page |
651 |
_version_ |
1801381373559177216 |