Speaking in tongues

J.M. Coetzee, Mariana Dimópulos

$29.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Harvill
27 May 2025

linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Psycholinguistics; Language acquisition; Translation & interpretation; Cultural studies

A book about how language shapes us, from the Nobel and Booker-prizewinning author and his Spanish translator,

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 Dim pulos - 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.

By: J.M. Coetzee, Mariana Dimópulos
Imprint: Harvill
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 17mm
Weight: 226g
ISBN: 9781787305137
ISBN 10: 1787305139
Pages: 96
Publication Date: 27 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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 teaches at the University of Buenos Aires.

Reviews for Speaking in tongues

So enjoyable and stimulating, and it made me probe more deeply, or differently, my own relationship with the languages I grew up speaking -- Sunjeev Sahota, Booker-shortlisted author of THE CHINA ROOM Anything J.M. Coetzee writes deserves our full attention * Evening Standard, on The Death of Jesus * One of the world's greatest novelists * Financial Times * It is the Man Booker prize-winning novelist’s agenda that drives the absorbing discussions of this book. Kurtz’s pieces are replies to Coetzee’s questions, and as such are insightful for both [psychoanalysis and novel-writing] -- Gerard Woodward, * Independent, on THE GOOD STORY *