Multilingualism and the arts: Introduction

Abstract

Multilingualism is implicated in the arts in very many ways. The connections between the two are extremely diverse and have yet to be explored or categorised in any comprehensive manner. Among the different aspects which can be identified, one can list the following:(i) Writers and artists, whether native multilinguals or not, can employ different languages as a resource in a number of creative ways in their work. For example, the different sounds of a new language can be used as material for poetical rhyme.(ii) Artists can represent multilingualism, real or fictional, just as one can represent any other characteristic of an individual or a group; they may also use it to index or symbolise various types of contrast inherent in those individuals.(iii) The use of different varieties may carry a political or social message, as for example when writers in formerly colonial settings choose to write in creole despite the fact that they are therefore seriously limiting their potential audience. It may also reflect an evolving socio- linguistic situation such as the gradual disappearance of fluency in a minority language.(iv) Becoming bi- or multilingual may add a new and transformative dimension to an artist's identity and to their works. Societal multilingualism/multiculturalism may transform that society's output and approach in a particular artistic field. Both in individuals and groups, this may be an additive process or else the new mode of expression may supplant the old.(v) Multilingualism appears to have effects on creativity and cognition in general, which could have wide-ranging effects on artistic production.The papers collected here, most of which were presented in an earlier form at the International Symposium on Bilingualism in Oslo in June 2011, obviously cannot attempt to cover all these issues, though several of them impinge on more than one of the areas above. An attempt has been made to be representative, if not comprehensive, through the inclusion of papers on several differ- ent art-forms: on literature (Tannenbaum), on theatre (Jonsson), on music (Tokita), on visual art and letters (Gardner-Chloros) and on 'Metrolingual Art' (Jaworski), which straddles various media. Research on these issues is, generally speaking, less well developed in relation to arts other than literature, and one of the purposes of this volume is to suggest that the ramifications of multilin- gualism deserve to be investigated in the non-literary arts also. Although this can most obviously be done in relation to issues (iii) and (iv), it is also the case that concepts originating in linguistics, such as code-switching, which concerns (i), (ii) and (iii), can be extended to other fields, including visual art, music and choreography (Friedman & Moana Te Rangitakina Ruha Gwynne, 2008; Gardner-Chloros, 2010; Hioki, 2011; Tokita, this volume).The first paper, by Michal Tannenbaum, is about a case of 'Translingualism', which refers to writing in a language other than your mother-tongue or main language. Tannenbaum takes the case of Arab writers in Israel, several of whom choose to write in Hebrew rather than in Arabic. Although Arabic is also an official language, it is nevertheless hierarchically disadvantaged compared with Hebrew and carries associations of alienation or discrimination. These writers' use of Hebrew therefore goes beyond the widely noted advantage of writing in another tongue, i.e. the creation of some emotional distance (see Kellman, 2000; 2003), or indeed the simple practical advantage of reaching a wider, or different, audience. For these writers, using Hebrew is in itself a way of raising issues of identity, of breaking down strict associations between nation, state, identity, language or religion. Their particular form of 'translanguaging' (Creese & Blackledge, 2010) highlights inter- nal as well as external conflicts, and allows them, Tannenbaum argues, to be part of a particular reality and to be observers at the same time. …