Metaglossia: The Translation World

Writing literature in the one and the other language By Francois Grosjean, Ph.D....

We saw in an earlier post that some bilingual authors write literature in their second or third language (see here) despite the fact that writing is one of the most demanding skills ever acquired. What is even more amazing is that other authors write their works in two languages, not just one.

Many of these authors go from writing in their first language to writing in their second or third language, usually after having emigrated. For example, Vladimir Nabokov, born in Russia in 1899, started by writing in Russian (e.g. Mashenka, The Gift) before becoming famous in the English-speaking world for his novels written directly in English (e.g. Bend Sinister, Lolita).

A similar itinerary was followed by Nobel Prize winner, Samuel Beckett, who was born in Ireland but who moved to France permanently at age 31. His first novel, Murphy, was written in English but after World War II, he started to write in French (e.g. Molloy).

Hunter College Professor, Elizabeth Beaujour, has analyzed why authors such as these shift over to writing in their second or third language. The first reason is obvious—it is to gain a wider audience, even if the émigré community is quite large in their new country. A second reason is that bilingual authors are rarely happy with the translations that are done of their works. They either redo the translations themselves, even though the process is particularly tormenting for many of them, or they write new works directly in their second or third language.

Writing literature in a second or a third language By Francois Grosjean, Ph.D....

Writing is one of the most demanding skills that is acquired, and writing literary works is an art that only a handful of people ever master. And yet, there are some very special bilinguals who write literature in their second or third language, and sometimes even in two languages.

There are many writers who are bilingual or multilingual but they usually write their works in their first language (e.g. Isaac B. Singer, Czelaw Milosz), or in their most proficient writing language when they changed language dominance in their childhood. This is the case of Richard Rodriguez, the author of Hunger of Memory, whose first language was Spanish but who writes in English, his dominant language. It is also the case of Eva Hoffman, of Lost in Translation fame, who moved to Canada from Poland when she was thirteen and who uses English as her literary language.

New evidence shows people should 'use it or lose it' when it comes to brainpower, because mind-stretching activities may delay age-related memory loss in later life.

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U.S. researchers investigated beta amyloid protein levels in 65 healthy older people aged 76 years, using PET scans and radioactive tags that attached to the protein, and their levels of cognitive activity using lifestyle questionnaires.
These were compared with results from 10 patients with Alzheimer's aged around 75 years and 11 healthy young people, aged 25 years.
They found lower levels of amyloid deposited in the brains of people involved in cognitively stimulating activities throughout their lives, such as reading, writing and playing games.

Researchers used PET scans and lifestyle questionnaires to formulate the study
This was especially marked for people who were 'brain active' in their early and middle years, says a report in the journal Archives of Neurology.
Older people with the highest level of brain activity had amyloid levels on a par with young people, and much lower than Alzheimer's patients.
People with the lowest levels of brain activity had amyloid levels on a par with Alzheimer's patients.