Oct 13, 2022
Video Resource
Online
ALTA45 Roundtable Overthrowing the Idea of the Mother Tongue
ALTA45 Roundtable: Overthrowing the Idea of the Mother Tongue
Why does the idea of “mother tongue” persist? Why mother, why a parent or person? As translators and writers with relationships to multiple languages and cultures, how can we imagine or explore alternatives to the term “mother tongue”?
Why do we emphasize language as something that comes from a person and not locations, time, or experiences?
We’ll discuss ways to reshape the way we talk about languages in the world of translation and beyond. Participants are invited to question the value of defining a “native” or a “first” language while also considering other ways to describe how we find and locate ourselves within and across languages.
Format: We’ll ask each participant to 1) prepare a question to share, and 2) contribute an alternative to “mother tongue” as well as relevant texts or ideas that have informed their approach, thinking, and feeling toward the topic. Quotations are welcome.
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Organizers
Jenna Tang is a Taiwanese writer and literary translator based in New York. She translates from Chinese, French, and Spanish. Her translations or essays are published in Restless Books, World Literature Today, AAWW, Catapult, Mcsweeney’s and elsewhere. She is one of the selected translators for the 2021 ALTA Emerging Translators Mentorship program with a focus on Taiwanese prose. Stine An is a poet and literary translator based in New York City. Her poetry and translations have appeared in World Literature Today, The Chicago Review, The Southern Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in literary arts from Brown University and has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the American Literary Translators Association.