My language is a jealous lover /
Adrián N. Bravi ; translated by Victoria Offredi Poletto and Giovanna Bellesia Contuzzi.
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| Summary: | "Have you ever wondered why your mother tongue never truly lets you go? Even when you achieve mastery in other languages? How you are her prisoner from those very first babblings, even before you learn to speak? Bravi, himself an Argentinian-Italian, will take you on a fascinating journey -his own and that of many others- to show how relentlessly possessive this lover is. From Nabokov, to Beckett, from Dante to Pasolini, Bravi weaves his story across centuries and borders. Many are the exiles he calls up to bear witness to the soul-searching, the anger, the frustrations, but also the joys of embracing another tongue. Beckett wanted to escape the constrictions of English and strip his adopted language, French, to the bare bones in order to "gain a greater simplicity and objectivity" - and, a less lofty ideal, to avoid comparison with Joyce! Nabokov, superb craftsman of English that he proved to be, was tortured by the realization that Russian would never allow him to achieve the highest levels in his adopted language. For Brodsky, Russian was the language of Soviet Russia that had exiled him. Kristoff is incensed with the French language as it is alienating her from her native Hungarian but will never grant her the same profound joy. From the Tower of Babel to the Sicilian Vespers, from the Inuit to the native peoples of Argentina, from creoles to dying languages, Bravi sweeps us along, just as our mother tongue never allows us to abandon her. We are forever in her possession"-- |
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English Italian |
| Published / Created: |
New Brunswick, Camden ; Newark, New Jersey :
Rutgers University Press,
2023.
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| Series: | Other voices of Italy.
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| Notes: | Translated from the Italian. Includes bibliographical references and index. Physical description: xxi, 169 pages ; 21 cm. more |
| ISBN: | 9781978834583 1978834586 9781978834590 1978834594 |
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Z13957 |
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