The aim of this essay is to pay homage to a great bilingual intellectual, Ariel Dorfman, by commenting on his memoir "Heading North, Looking South: A Bilingual Journey", which constitutes the unique example of an autobiography where the facts of an eventful life are dealt with in the light of the author’s relationship with his two languages, English and Spanish. Born in Argentina into a family of Jewish origins, brought up in the USA, compelled to escape to Chile in the days of McCarthy’s anticommunist craze, and to fly first to Europe, then back to the States, when the government of Salvador Allende was overthrown, Dorfman deals with his multiple exiles as if they were a never-ending translation, from one language to the other, up to the point when he reaches what he calls his “linguistic ambidexterity”, and refuses the monolingual option for good. Actually, nowadays not only does Dorfman auto-translate his works, but he is one of the greatest advocates of bilinguism in his essays, while his poetry is mainly devoted to ponder on the terrible paradox of not being more than “an intermediary, not even a bridge” , in spite of his two languages, when it comes to expressing trauma and the pain of the others.
Ariel Dorfman o della bigamia linguistica
ALBERTAZZI, SILVIA
2013
Abstract
The aim of this essay is to pay homage to a great bilingual intellectual, Ariel Dorfman, by commenting on his memoir "Heading North, Looking South: A Bilingual Journey", which constitutes the unique example of an autobiography where the facts of an eventful life are dealt with in the light of the author’s relationship with his two languages, English and Spanish. Born in Argentina into a family of Jewish origins, brought up in the USA, compelled to escape to Chile in the days of McCarthy’s anticommunist craze, and to fly first to Europe, then back to the States, when the government of Salvador Allende was overthrown, Dorfman deals with his multiple exiles as if they were a never-ending translation, from one language to the other, up to the point when he reaches what he calls his “linguistic ambidexterity”, and refuses the monolingual option for good. Actually, nowadays not only does Dorfman auto-translate his works, but he is one of the greatest advocates of bilinguism in his essays, while his poetry is mainly devoted to ponder on the terrible paradox of not being more than “an intermediary, not even a bridge” , in spite of his two languages, when it comes to expressing trauma and the pain of the others.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
