Speaking in Tongues by J.M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimopulos
'Speaking in Tongues' by J.M. Coetzee and Mariana Dimopulos
Speaking in Tongues is a dialogue between two writers, South Africa’s Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee and Argentina’s Mariana Dimopulos, a novelist and translator who had previously collaborated with Coetzee. The hard to surmount challenges of translation are one theme of Speaking in Tongues—what if there is no right word for something in another language? And why does the German kaputt sound more final, more definitive than anything English or Spanish?
Coetzee and Dimopulos share concerns over the global dominance of English. Anglo world travelers can manage with little more than “buenos dias!” anywhere they land, but is English’s monopoly in science and scholarship excluding other ways of understanding the world? Deeper questions follow. Does language determine the way we think, or is it a screen through which we filter our perceptions of reality? Can things be thought that cannot be said? And what business does an academy, a government or a self-appointed special interest group have in imposing “reforms” on a living language?
The authors also point out the odd situation of millions across the world who use their “mother tongue” in their personal life but a different language, the “master tongue,” professionally? What about gendered languages such as Spanish or German. Are the roots simply patriarchal or was there some lost, primeval understanding of the nature of things?
Coetzee and Dimopulos conduct a friendly conversation and not always in strict agreement as they raise questions with no definitive answers.
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