Untying the Mother Tongue

Untying the Mother Tongue explores what it might mean today to speak of someone's attachment to a particular, primary language. Traditional conceptions of mother tongue are often seen as an expression of the ideology of a European nation-state. Yet, current celebrations of multilingualism reflect the recent demands of global capitalism, raising other challenges. The contributions from international scholars on literature, philosophy, and culture, analyze and problematize the concept of 'mother tongue', rethinking affective and cognitive attachments to language while deconstructing its metaphysical, capitalist, and colonialist presuppositions.

Contenu
Introduction / Antonio Castore, Federico Dal Bo But You Don't Get Used to Anything / Deborah Achtenberg Philosophy's Mother Envy / Michael Eng 'My Mother Tongue Is a Foreign Language' / Federico Dal Bo The Mother Tongue at School / Jakob Norberg Scarspeak / Juliane Prade-Weiss The Shuffling of Feet on the Pavement / Teresa Prudente 'I know you can cant' / Jeffrey Champlin The Mother Tongue of Love and Loss / Caroline Sauter The Staircase Wit / Antonio Castore Wandering Words / Libera Pisano