Narrating the Meaning of Existence: An Analysis of the Autobiographical Narratives of Three Translingual Writers release_lry52b4tqjca3lhjm2fgowiehq

by Amer Ahmed, Iryna Lenchuk

Published in Theory and Practice in Language Studies by Academy Publication.

2021   Volume 11, Issue 12, p1702-1708

Abstract

This paper focuses on the autobiographical narratives of three translingual writers, Nabokov, Brodsky and Makine. Their narratives are analyzed by taking into account Vygotsky's ideas on the relationship between language and thought (1987), Bruner's ideas on storytelling (1986, 2002) and Swain's concept of languaging as a meaning-making process through language (Swain, 2006). The paper investigates the question of the role of language in making sense of writers' lives as displaced people. In order to answer this question, we analyzed the autobiographical narratives for languaging episodes that are defined as autobiographical excerpts where the writers attempt to make sense of their lives as displaced people. The following major themes have been identified as the result of the analysis: construction of the lost world out of new experiences, discovery of the meaning of existence, reconciliation through cultural and linguistic hybridity. We believe that the implication of the study is that it can resonate with the lives of other displaced people at the time of cultural and linguistic superdiversity.
In application/xml+jats format

Archived Files and Locations

application/pdf  1.1 MB
file_uxk23wtphvh7tdz53jj55r7key
tpls.academypublication.com (publisher)
web.archive.org (webarchive)
Read Archived PDF
Preserved and Accessible
Type  article-journal
Stage   published
Date   2021-12-02
Container Metadata
Open Access Publication
Not in DOAJ
In ISSN ROAD
Not in Keepers Registry
ISSN-L:  1799-2591
Work Entity
access all versions, variants, and formats of this works (eg, pre-prints)
Catalog Record
Revision: b17e1a91-4cb3-463b-8a9f-115ec475fab1
API URL: JSON