Javier Marías and Antonio Muñoz Molina: between two languages

Carolina P Amador Moreno

doi:10.52034/lanstts.v4i.136

Abstract

The reader that Spanish novelists Javier Marías and Antonio Muñoz Molina have in mind in Todas las Almas, Corazón tan blanco and Carlota Fainberg is not only an educated reader , but also a reader who is presumed to be pro-ficient in English, and who will, therefore, be able to comprehend the numerous examples of code-switching, the “philological dissections” and cultural references to the English-speaking world that appear in their respective novels. This paper shows how these two authors create fictional images of linguistic interference and translation in order to add credibility to both their characters and narrators. It also addresses the question of whether or not, while still writing from an une quivocally Spanish perspective, they manage to successfully integrate (both in aesthetic terms and in terms of mimetic accuracy) elements pertaining to the English-speaking world into their novels, endowing them with an intercultural dimension.

Highlights

The question of how two languages in contact influence each other has been central to studies in the fields of education, psychology, linguistics, translation studies, etc
The purpose of this article is to explore the fictional representation of language contact in three contemporary Spanish novels – Carlota Fainberg, Todas las Almas (TA) and Corazón tan blanco (CTB) – by observing how the insertion of English terms and references to the English-speaking world contributes to the creation of a particular atmosphere
This paper has analysed how the selection and arrangement of linguistic items, cultural references and metalinguistic reflections in CF, TA and CTB contribute to the general effect of exotism, a particularity of the style of Muñoz Molina and Marías

Summary

Introduction

The question of how two (or more) languages in contact influence each other has been central to studies in the fields of education, psychology, linguistics, translation studies, etc. The main characters in CF, TA and CTB have in common their proficiency in a second language They exhibit abilities that only bilinguals appear to have, such as code-switching, borrowing, and simultaneous translation. As Darío Villanueva (1992: 251) indicates, “en los alrededores de esa fecha no hay obras de particular relieve firmadas por las sucesivas promociones surgidas desde la guerra civil y ya bien establecidas en los medios literarios y editoriales” This is the context in which the revival of the Spanish novel took place: new names began to appear, breaking into an editorial market that welcomed the wide variety of narrative styles and themes that these young writers were bringing: Estos escritores, en términos generales, no se sienten herederos de los enfrentamientos ideológicos de sus padres (al contrario de lo que sucede con la generación del medio siglo). As will be argued here, these authors’ knowledge of languages other than their native Spanish is one of the tools enabling them to challenge the traditional limits of their own literary medium

Linguistic interference and stylistic exotism

Code-switching in Carlota Fainberg

Philological lessons

Summary and conclusion