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Multilingual writing and self-translation: the fiction of Sharon Dodua Otoo

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This master's thesis examines multilingualism and self-translation in the fiction of Sharon Dodua Otoo, highlighting the central role of multilingual elements in her writing through a combined approach of quantitative and qualitative methods. Otoo's work challenges the monolingual paradigm by linking identity and language across multiple narrative and linguistic layers. A distinction between overt and covert multilingualism proves useful in the analysis. Overt multilingual elements serve literary and stylistic functions, such as indexing identities, and can be categorized into three types based on frequency and structural complexity: (1) highly complex and frequent languages reflecting identities and competencies; (2) less complex, setting-specific languages as socio-cultural markers; and (3) non-standard languages as a subcategory of the first type. Covert multilingualism manifests through "shining through" in Adas Raum, where traces of Otoo's native English appear in her German writing across pragmatics, semantics, morphology, syntax, and orthography. This linguistic hybridity situates her work on a continuum of self-translation, challenging traditional dichotomies between author/translator and original/translation. A comparative analysis of Otoo's English novella and its German translation reveals the matrix language's influence on the complexity and transparency of multilingual elements. Translator Mirjam Nuenning’s strategic choices reconfigure multilingualism within the translated text, further blurring the boundaries between original and translation. The study also considers the asymmetrical relationship between German and English, where English exerts a strong influence due to its global status. Concepts of permeability and tolerance are key to understanding cross-linguistic transfer.
DOI: 10.6094/unifr/262308
Author: Kalmbach, Frida
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6939969940
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