“What influence does Slovak have on my German?” Metamultilingualism and literary multilingualism in Irena Brežná’s texts Cover Image

„Aký vplyv má na moju nemčinu slovenčina?“ Metamultilingvizmus a literárna viacjazyčnosť v textoch Ireny Brežnej
“What influence does Slovak have on my German?” Metamultilingualism and literary multilingualism in Irena Brežná’s texts

Author(s): Adriana Schwarzbacher
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Ústav slovenskej literatúry SAV
Keywords: metamultilingualism; literary multilingualism; “new” world literature; Irena Brežná; Elke Sturm-Trigonakis; Yasemin Yildiz; Natalia Blum-Barth

Summary/Abstract: The author’s experience of emigration makes visible – in literary works and public speeches – one of the aspects of multilingualism as not only a consequence of migration and globalization, but also of the concept of metamultilingualism which contributes to expanding of our understanding of linguistic dynamics in literary production. Through selected literary texts and interviews with the Slovak-Swiss author Irena Brežná, the paper outlines the concept of metamultilingualism and literary multilingualism as one of the characteristics of the “new” world literature. Metamultilingualism as a generator of literary multilingualism is presented through the definition by Elke Sturm-Trigonakis and through its realisation in the form of linguistic commentary. The paper also takes a look at the reflection of languages in I. Brežná’s writing as one of the frameworks of her work and a part of the literary process. At the same time, it looks at the concept of monolingualism as an artificial construct and multilingualism as a natural social condition as outlined in the theory of Yasemina Yildiz and Till Dembeck. In the analysis of the internal plane of the text, the article relies on the concept of manifest, latent, and excluded multilingualism, systematically elaborated by Natalia Blum-Barth, who, like Immacolata Amode, sees multilingualism as intratextual.

  • Issue Year: 71/2024
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 138 - 152
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Slovak