The Violent Fecundity of Mohja Kahl's Translingual Texts

Authors

• Rachel Norman, Linfield CollegeFollow

Publication Date

9-2021

Disciplines

Modern Literature | Poetry

Abstract

From publisher: "Scholars writing on US multiethnic literature have described the inclusion of "foreign" languages in fiction as a method for reclaiming power by making the subject impassable, unknowable, or opaque to the monolingual reader. However, these analyses have focused on the incommensurate positions of linguistic insiders and outsiders. This essay contends that Arab American authorMohja Kahfdelivers an alternate ideology in hertranslingualtexts. Writing in a national context that conflates "Arab," "Muslim," and "terrorist" and that uses Arabic as a cultural symbol to denote all three, Kahf employs an aesthetic paradigm to teach her monolingual English-speaking readers Arabic. In doing so, she draws communities together through atranslingualpoetics that forges a space in the US national context that accepts and celebrates, rather than fears, Arabic."

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published Version

Rights

Copyright © 2021 Hopkins Press. This article first appeared in American Quarterly, volume 73: 3 (2021), 693-705. Reprinted with permission by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Original Citation

Rachel Norman The Violent Fecundity of Mohja Kahf's Translingual Texts American Quarterly, 2021, volume 73, issue 3, pages 693-705. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/807052

DigitalCommons@Linfield Citation

Norman, Rachel, "The Violent Fecundity of Mohja Kahl's Translingual Texts" (2021). Faculty Publications. Article. Submission 84.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/englfac_pubs/84