Changing traditions in non-fictional Jewish-Canadian writing — the study of selected texts by Eva Hoffman, Elaine Kalman Naves and Bernice Eisenstein

In her famous memoir Lost in Translation (1989), the journalist and psychoanalyst Eva Hoffman describes her childhood metamorphosis from a Polish into a North American girl by reconstructing her experience with learning a new language. She equates this with loss and acquisition of identities. This article focuses on Hoffman’s interest in language as an identity issue since this is a highly relevant theme for migration researchers, particularly for those working with narrative material. The article explores the role of language in biographical interviews with migrants and discusses language use as an instrument for data collection. It argues that we need to ensure a sensitive and vigilant handling of language in the interview setting, which takes into consideration context, coding, articulation and hybridity. The final part raises questions about the ways in which gender comes into play in migrants’ narratives.

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From „neither this nor that” to „a stereoscopic and stereophonic attitude to the world”: writers’ attitude to bilingualism

Tekstualia ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0013.4199 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 3 (46) ◽

pp. 5-16

Author(s):

Olga Kubińska

Keyword(s):

Cultural Anthropology ◽

Contemporary Culture ◽

Cognitive Sciences ◽

Eva Hoffman ◽

The Holocaust ◽

The World ◽

Sociology Of Translation ◽

Intellectual Capacity ◽

Popular Language ◽

Adequate Evidence

The article examines the problem of bilingualism from a diachronic perspective in the context of the contribution of current cultural theories (gender, postcolonial) to the perception of multilingualism in contemporary culture. A distinct issue in this research is compulsory bilingualism caused by the Holocaust and involuntary resettlement processes resulting from political harassment. The article also emphasizes the import of cultural anthropology, cognitive sciences and the sociology of translation into the redefi nition of the very notion of bilingualism and the infl uence of this phenomenon on such remote from literature spheres as therapy. Refl ection on bilingualism is largely dependent on the intellectual capacity of the bilingual authors conducting self-analysis. The cases of Eva Hoffman and Anna Wierzbicka provide more than adequate evidence which signifi cantly complements the testimony of philosophers, such as trilingual George Steiner, and bilingual writers, such as Conrad, Nabokov or Brodsky. Finally, it should be added that globalization favors bilingualism among authors but often also provides the rationale for choosing a less popular language as a means of expression.

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A perspectiva do texto no processo da tradução. Sobre a autobiografia Lost in Translation de Eva Hoffman

Tradterm ◽

10.11606/issn.2317-9511.tradterm.2010.40290 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 17 ◽

pp. 195

Author(s):

Magdalena Nowinska

Keyword(s):

Eva Hoffman ◽

Lost In Translation

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Found in Translation or Edwige Danticat’s Voyage of Recovery

TTR traduction terminologie rédaction ◽

10.7202/010721ar ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 197-222

Author(s):

Anne Malena

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Fictional Characters ◽

Eva Hoffman ◽

Two Cultures ◽

The Creation ◽

Lost In Translation ◽

The Way

AbstractThis paper explores the writing of Haitian writer Edwige Danticat from a perspective of (im)migration and translation which is different from that elaborated by Eva Hoffman inLost in Translation. By contrasting the traumas suffered by both authors and the way they deal with it, different conclusions can be reached concerning the theory of self they propose. Hoffman is resigned to translate herself in order to fit into the American context but never gets over the loss of her Polish self. Danticat, who realizes upon her arrival in New York that she was already a translated being, delves into the Haitian collective past for the creation of fictional characters who find in the translation of their selves the strength to live in two languages and two cultures without abandoning their personal and collective past.

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‘Living in translation’: A conversation with Eva Hoffman

European Journal of Women s Studies ◽

10.1177/1350506811415194 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 339-345 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ann Phoenix ◽

Kornelia Slavova

Keyword(s):

Eva Hoffman

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Conversation with Eva Hoffman

Women s Studies ◽

10.1080/00497870390221927 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 32 (6) ◽

pp. 761-769 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Brenda Webster

Keyword(s):

Eva Hoffman

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Genetics and the Literary Imagination

10.1093/oso/9780198813286.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Clare Hanson

Keyword(s):

Literary Fiction ◽

Kazuo Ishiguro ◽

Holistic View ◽

Eva Hoffman ◽

Margaret Drabble ◽

Ian Mcewan ◽

Living Organisms ◽

And Function ◽

Thought Styles ◽

The Impact

This book explores the impact of genetic and postgenomic science on British literary fiction over the last four decades, focusing on the challenge posed to novelists by gene-centric neo-Darwinism and examining the recent rapprochement between postgenomic perspectives and literary understandings of human nature. It assesses the rise to cultural prominence of neo-Darwinism in the form of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, thought styles which were predicated on scientific reductionism and genetic determinism. It explores the ways in which the fiction of Doris Lessing, A.S. Byatt, and Ian McEwan critiques neo-Darwinism but also registers the extent to which these writers are persuaded by the neo-Darwinian view of human behaviour as driven by genetic self-interest. It goes on to consider the ‘new biology’ that emerged around the turn of the millennium, as gene-centrism was displaced by a more dynamic and holistic view of the development and function of living organisms. It reads the work of Eva Hoffman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Drabble, and Jackie Kay as converging with this shift in which the organism is reconfigured as agentic and self-organizing but caught up in complex co-dependencies with other organisms. The archetypal postgenomic science of epigenetics is crucial in facilitating this change, disclosing the ways in which the genome is constantly modified in response to environmental cues and sponsoring a view of identity in terms of plasticity and mutability, a view more congenial to many writers than the concept of genetic predetermination.

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