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dkevanstoronto's review against another edition
4.0
A very in depth and enlightening discussion regarding poetry that breaks the monolinguist idea of North American culture. This is a very enjoyable but complex analysis that anyone who loves theory or the multicultural culture of North America will definitely want to read.
aceofbens's review
NOTE: I received an advance reader copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinions or the way I talk about the book.
This book was not at all what I expected it to be. The title was listed under the poetry category on NetGalley, so I was expecting a poetry collection with a multilingual, multicultural theme. However, as I opened the book and began reading, I found that was not at all what this book is about.
After reading about 5% of the way in, I realized this was more of a scholarly article than anything else. There really weren't even any poems presented and then analyzed in paragraphs after them. It was mostly just referencing different works, quoting them at times, and breaking down the multilingualism, or "translingualism" as it's referred to in the book, and what it means in a broader social context.
Although I'm frustrated that I was misled by this book, I'm glad that I read it. I've said it a hundred times before and I'll say it again: I'm studying to become a Spanish-to-English literary translator, so having read works like Translingual Poetics has helped to broaden my knowledge on this subject in ways that I never would have in my undergraduate program. I appreciate that Dowling uses many examples of authors and works from recent decades, even though I had not previously heard of any of them. It's a refreshing break from only talking about the classics in my coursework.
So you may be wondering what translingualism is since it's not a common term in everyday language. In fact, I had never heard of it before picking up this book, and looking to find out what it meant was part of the reason I requested it. Since the book essentially uses its 240 pages to explain all facets of translingualism, I'll simply explain here that it is an alternative term for multilingualism that doesn't carry the same connotations that often get in the way when using it to describe creative works. As Dowling puts it, "... the term multilingual is ... increasingly critiqued because it simply describes the coexistence of languages ... and is generally silent about the relationships between them. I use the term translingual... because it describes the capacity of languages to interact, influence, and transform one another."
Honestly, this is not something I've thought about before. Of course, I can't say that's surprising considering I'm still completing my undergraduate work which focuses more on Spanish language and the cultures associated with it and less on linguistics as a whole. But the arguments that Dowling makes in this piece are interesting and thought-provoking.
The wide array of cultural backgrounds mentioned throughout the analysis and the in-depth examination of the social, political, historical, and linguistic reasoning behind using two or more languages interchangeably in one body of work was absolutely fascinating to my language-loving brain. The reason I knocked a star off of the rating is because there were times in the text when I had trouble understanding what Dowling was trying to say. This could simply be due to the fact that it's written for an audience with a more scholarly background than I have, but it was disappointing nonetheless because it brought me out of focus several times and I was geniunely interested in the subject.
Final thought: Is this something that my typical followers would like to read? Probably not. However, I still recommend it because it's a fascinating subject, and if you are interested in linguistics, it's worth the read!
Support Me Elsewhere!
This book was not at all what I expected it to be. The title was listed under the poetry category on NetGalley, so I was expecting a poetry collection with a multilingual, multicultural theme. However, as I opened the book and began reading, I found that was not at all what this book is about.
After reading about 5% of the way in, I realized this was more of a scholarly article than anything else. There really weren't even any poems presented and then analyzed in paragraphs after them. It was mostly just referencing different works, quoting them at times, and breaking down the multilingualism, or "translingualism" as it's referred to in the book, and what it means in a broader social context.
Although I'm frustrated that I was misled by this book, I'm glad that I read it. I've said it a hundred times before and I'll say it again: I'm studying to become a Spanish-to-English literary translator, so having read works like Translingual Poetics has helped to broaden my knowledge on this subject in ways that I never would have in my undergraduate program. I appreciate that Dowling uses many examples of authors and works from recent decades, even though I had not previously heard of any of them. It's a refreshing break from only talking about the classics in my coursework.
So you may be wondering what translingualism is since it's not a common term in everyday language. In fact, I had never heard of it before picking up this book, and looking to find out what it meant was part of the reason I requested it. Since the book essentially uses its 240 pages to explain all facets of translingualism, I'll simply explain here that it is an alternative term for multilingualism that doesn't carry the same connotations that often get in the way when using it to describe creative works. As Dowling puts it, "... the term multilingual is ... increasingly critiqued because it simply describes the coexistence of languages ... and is generally silent about the relationships between them. I use the term translingual... because it describes the capacity of languages to interact, influence, and transform one another."
Honestly, this is not something I've thought about before. Of course, I can't say that's surprising considering I'm still completing my undergraduate work which focuses more on Spanish language and the cultures associated with it and less on linguistics as a whole. But the arguments that Dowling makes in this piece are interesting and thought-provoking.
The wide array of cultural backgrounds mentioned throughout the analysis and the in-depth examination of the social, political, historical, and linguistic reasoning behind using two or more languages interchangeably in one body of work was absolutely fascinating to my language-loving brain. The reason I knocked a star off of the rating is because there were times in the text when I had trouble understanding what Dowling was trying to say. This could simply be due to the fact that it's written for an audience with a more scholarly background than I have, but it was disappointing nonetheless because it brought me out of focus several times and I was geniunely interested in the subject.
Final thought: Is this something that my typical followers would like to read? Probably not. However, I still recommend it because it's a fascinating subject, and if you are interested in linguistics, it's worth the read!
Support Me Elsewhere!
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