K OHL Creative Multilingualism ET AL . A Manifesto Creative EDITED BY KATRIN KOHL, RAJINDER DUDRAH, ANDREW GOSLER, SUZANNE GRAHAM, MARTIN MAIDEN, WEN-CHIN OUYANG AND MATTHEW REYNOLDS Multilingualism Mul� lingualism is integral to the human condi� on. Hinging on the concept of Crea� ve Mul� lingualism — the idea that language diversity and crea� vity are mutually enriching — this � mely and thought-provoking volume shows how the concept provides a matrix for experimenta� on with ideas, approaches and methods. C The book presents four years of joint research on mul� lingualism across REATIVE disciplines, from the humani� es through to the social and natural sciences. It is structured as a manifesto, comprising ten major statements which are unpacked through various case studies across ten chapters. They encompass M areas including the rich rela� onship between language diversity and diversity ULTILINGUALISM of iden� ty, thought and expression; the interac� on between language diversity and biodiversity; the ‘prisma� c’ unfolding of meaning in transla� on; the benefi ts of linguis� c crea� vity in a classroom-se� ng; and the ingenuity underpinning ‘conlangs’ (‘constructed languages’) designed to give imagined peoples a dis� nc� ve medium capable of expressing their cultural iden� ty. This book is a welcome contribu� on to the fi eld of modern languages, highligh� ng the intricate rela� onship between mul� lingualism and crea� vity, and, crucially, reaching beyond an Anglo-centric view of the world. Intended to spark further research and discussion, this book appeals to young people interested in languages, language learning and cultural exchange. It will be a valuable resource for academics, educators, policy makers and parents of bilingual or mul� lingual children. Its accessible style also speaks to general readers interested in the role of language diversity in our everyday lives, and A Manifesto the untapped crea� ve poten� al of mul� lingualism. EDITED BY KATRIN KOHL, As with all Open Book publica� ons, this en� re book is available to read for free on the publisher’s website. Printed and digital edi� ons, together with supplementary digital material, RAJINDER DUDRAH, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com NDREW OSLER Cover image: Cedoux Kadima, Mappa Mundi (2017), mixed media on canvas. Cover design by Anna Ga� . A G , book SUZANNE GRAHAM, eebook and OA edi� ons MARTIN MAIDEN, also available WEN-CHIN OUYANG OBP www.openbookpublishers.com AND MATTHEW REYNOLDS © Katrin Kohl, Rajinder Dudrah, Andrew Gosler, Suzanne Graham, Martin Maiden, Wen- chin Ouyang and Matthew Reynolds. Copyright of individual chapters is maintained by the chapters’ authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Some of the material in this book has been reproduced according to the fair use principle which allows use of copyrighted material for scholarly purposes. Attribution should include the following information: Katrin Kohl, Rajinder Dudrah, Andrew Gosler, Suzanne Graham, Martin Maiden, Wen-chin Ouyang and Matthew Reynolds (eds), Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2020. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0206 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https:// doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0206#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Any digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https:// doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0206#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-929-4 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-930-0 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-931-7 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-932-4 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-933-1 ISBN Digital (XML): 978-1-78374-934-8 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0206 Cover image: Cedoux Kadima, Mappa Mundi (2017), mixed media on canvas. Cover design by Anna Gatti. 5. Multilingualism and Creativity in World Literature Wen-chin Ouyang Languages travel and migrate One of the most important features of world literature is ‘multilingualism’. Multilingualism in poetry and stories written in any language around the world may best be described as ‘languages in dialogue’. Languages travel, talk to each other and interact. This can take place across languages, and even within a language, which makes each language multilingual. Multilingualism is both the sign and site of creativity in world literature, as will be seen in examples from Arabic, Chinese and English stories. These stories represent creative multilingualism in two overlapping ways. They have travelled around the world through literary translation and cinematic adaptation, bringing their languages, world views, motifs and characters into dialogue with other cultures, languages and literatures. More importantly, they are born in translation and adaptation, in inter-cultural, inter-lingual and inter-literary dialogues. Language Lives Languages in Dialogue Wen-chin Ouyang I speak Mandarin peppered with English to my Chinese friends. In Arabic I use one of the spoken registers and intersperse it with classical Arabic as © Wen-chin Ouyang, CC BY 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0206.05 110 Creative Multilingualism well as English words, phrases and even sentences to chat with my Iraqi, Lebanese and Syrian colleagues at SOAS. When I speak to my brother in Taiwanese, it is saturated with Arabic, English and Mandarin. Arabic, Mandarin and English, the three languages I know well, are normally seen as three discrete and distinct languages, but they have blended into each other in my speech patterns. I pick and choose from each language and mix them up depending on my audience and what I want to say. Everybody I know is multilingual but not in exactly the same way. My brother is the only person I know who understands my three main languages and their inflections: standard Arabic and her1 spoken regional variations (such as Libyan, Egyptian, Levantine and Gulf); Chinese Mandarin and Taiwanese; and English, in particular the US variety. The way I speak to him reflects his languages. My Arab colleagues and friends are fluent in Arabic and English. I am bilingual around them. European Arabists tend to know two or three Middle Eastern languages as well as two or three European languages. I can even put my smatterings of French and Persian to good use in conversations with them. Chinese Arabists often know only Arabic and Chinese. I speak to them in Mandarin, which is the lingua franca among the Chinese today, and only turn to Arabic names and terms when we discuss Arabic culture and literature. Certain concepts and practices are culture-specific. Wen-chin Ouyang, Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at SOAS University of London, leads the ‘Creativity and World Literatures’ strand of Creative Multilingualism. Fig. 1 Wen-chin Ouyang. Reproduced with her kind permission. Photograph by Dai Yazhen (2018). 1 You may notice that ‘language’ appears as ‘she’ in this chapter — a reflection of its gender in Arabic (and in some other languages, e.g. German). 5. Multilingualism and Creativity in World Literature 111 One of the most obvious traces of languages in dialogue is found in mentions of food. English, for example, is full of foreign-sounding words such as spaghetti, couscous, falafel, hummus, kebab or ramen (see ‘The Multilingual Life of Food’ in the Introduction to this volume). Food has a way of integrating itself and the culture of its production and consumption seamlessly into the fabric of any language. Even the most innocuous food items can have a global history. Harry Potter (Rowling 1997–2007) is not big on food or drink. However, breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and even feasts do mark the time of the day or give a sense of space when adventures or misadventures happen. Dialogues or adventures take place during mealtimes, or where meals are served. Meals and teas are respite from misadventures. Similarly, staple food, spice and drink in the seven novels give this world-famous series a background in British as well as European imperialism and colonialism. Harry, Ron and Hermione’s all-time favourite is chocolate, whether in the form of chocolate frogs, a mug of hot chocolate, or medicinal chocolate blocks Madam Pomfrey makes her young patients eat. It comes from South America and has been travelling around the world through the production, trade and consumption networks created and supported during the age of European empires between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. The potato — boiled, roasted or fried — has made its way into English cuisine from the Americas. Pumpkin, which goes into pumpkin pasties and Harry’s favourite drink, iced pumpkin juice, comes from North America. Pepper in Madam Pomfrey’s ‘Pepperup potion’, which ‘left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours’ (Rowling 1998: 128), is native to Kerala in southwestern India. Coffee, favoured by the Muggles, originated in tropicalAfrica, Ethiopia and the Sudan. Merchants took it along on their travels around the world beginning in the fifteenth century, and it arrived inEngland in the sixteenth century through the efforts of the BritishLevant Company and East India Company as well as the Dutch East India Company. The brew for all occasions in Harry Potter is tea, which is native to Southeast China.