Another writer who I have long admired is Jhumpa Lahiri. In this discussion published on Lit Hub, Jhumpa Lahiri and Chiara Barzini discuss writing in another language and"the mother tongue." Lahiri was Bengali-American and wrote novels in English. But early on, she fell in love with the Italian language. Eventually, she learned Italian, moved to Italy, and began to write in Italian. Now she has returned to the United States, and she has interesting insights into the writing voice, translation, and languages. To read the entire interview go to https://lithub.com/writing-in-the-interim-language-jhumpa-lahiri-and-chiara-barzini-in-conversation/
Jhumpa Lahiri: I’ll cite the French-Guadeloupéenne writer Maryse Condé who felt the conflicting expectations of writing in French and Créole and eventually said: “I write in Maryse Condé.” She liberated herself from the trap of either/or, and also, given that she is francophone, from the oppressive weight of a colonial language. Condé forged a French language of her own, a French she has interrogated, grappled with, and comes to identify with on her own terms. All writers must forge their own language and liberate themselves in this way. This notion of liberating ourselves from another strain of the binary—that which divides and defines what is native and what is foreign—lies behind what Proust says: that beautiful books are written in a sort of foreign language. Ever since I discovered James Joyce and Virginia Woolf I have been seeking my own language.
We can look at our own rough drafts to notice what is new, what is emerging, and embark on an exploration. Writing is not just looking, but also a doing. We bring in our curiosity, our languages (diction and lingo as well), and our eccentricities. The writing voice is meant to be unique.
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