Multilingual America: Transnationalism, Ethnicity, and the Languages of American Literature

By Werner Sollors

Aside from the occasional controversy over "Official English" campaigns, language remains the blind spot in the debate over multiculturalism. Considering its status as a nation of non-English speaking aborigines and of immigrants with many languages, America exhibits a curious tunnel vision about cultural and literary forms that are not in English. How then have non-English speaking Americans written about their experiences in this country? And what can we learn-about America, immigration and ethnicity-from them?
Arguing that multilingualism is perhaps the most important form of diversity, Multilingual America calls attention to-and seeks to correct-the linguistic parochialism that has defined American literary study. By bringing together essays on important works by, among others, Yiddish, Chinese American, German American, Italian American, Norwegian American, and Spanish American writers, Werner Sollors here presents a fuller view of multilingualism as a historical phenomenon and as an ongoing way of life. At a time when we are just beginning to understand the profound effects of language acquisition on the development of the brain, Multilingual America forces us to broaden what in fact constitutes American literature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814780938
• ISBN13: 9780814780930
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

An outstanding contribution to mulicultural America!

Werner Sollors' critical anthology is a timely contribution to the relatively new multicultural self-image of America. On the historical side, it reminds us of the fact that, until about 1920, "American Literature" was understood as "literature written in the U.S.A.",in a variety of languages other than English, and that these works were also included in the anthologies and histories of American Literature. Authored by international and American scholars, the book's essays trace the development towards "English only" over the past seven decades, provide enligthening - and often entertaining - examples of novels, stories, poems and plays written in German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, Yiddish, and other languages, and present the reader with a fascinating mosaic of America's truly multicultural literary heritage. With regard to the contemporary situation in an age of rapidly growing globalization, Sollors' introduction points to the somewhat paradoxical fact that, in spite of the new multicultural understanding of American society, the number of Americans who speak any language other than English is in constant decline. Reminding us of the fact that language always transports cultural values, Sollors' proposal for the preservation of America's rich multicultural heritage is "English plus" (another language). This idea may not make him many friends among the contemporary "English only" movements in several regions of the U.S., but it certainly appears to be a viable way towards a serious practice of multiculturalism.