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Speaking in Tongues
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Brief Description
Speaking in Tongues is a book about how language shapes us, written by Nobel and Booker-prizewinning author J. M. Coetzee and his Spanish translator, Mariana Dimópulos. This is a book about languages, what languages can and what they cannot do. In this dialogue between a Nobel...
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See moreIn this dialogue between a Nobel Laureate and a leading translator, provocative ideas emerge about the evolution of language and the challenge of translation.
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Description
Speaking in Tongues is a book about how language shapes us, written by Nobel and Booker-prizewinning author J. M. Coetzee and his Spanish translator, Mariana Dimópulos.
This is a book about languages, what languages can and what they cannot do.
In this dialogue between a Nobel Laureate and a leading translator, provocative ideas emerge about the evolution of language and the challenge of translation. Language, historically speaking, has always been slippery. Two dictionaries provide two different maps of the universe; which one is true, or are both false?
Speaking in Tongues—taking the form of a dialogue between Nobel-Laureate novelist J. M. Coetzee and eminent translator Mariana Dimópulos—explores questions that have constantly plagued writers and translators, now more than ever. Among them:
- How can a translator liberate meanings imprisoned in the language of a text?
- Why is the masculine form dominant in gendered languages while the feminine is treated as a deviation?
- How should we counter the spread of monolingualism?
- Should a translator censor racist or misogynistic language?
- Does mathematics tell the truth about everything?
In the tradition of Walter Benjamin's seminal essay 'The Task of the Translator', Speaking in Tongues emerges as an engaging and accessible work of philosophy, shining a light on some of the most important linguistic and philological issues of our time.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781787305137
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 22 May 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Harvill Secker
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 17.0mm
Width: 38.0mm
Height: 207.0mm
Weight: 226g
Pages: 144
About the Author
J.M. Coetzee (Author) J.M. Coetzee's work includes Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Boyhood, Youth, Disgrace, Summertime, The Childhood of Jesus and, most recently, The Schooldays of Jesus. He was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. Mariana Dim pulos (Author) Mariana Dim pulos is an Argentine writer, translator, and teacher. Specializing in German philosophy and the work of Walter Benjamin, she has published four novels. The last of these, Quemar El Cielo (2019), was a finalist on the shortlist of the Fundaci n Medife-Filba Novel Prize in the year of its publication. She taught at the University of Buenos Aires, and now lives in Germany.
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