Manifestations of explicit and latent multilingualism in recent Lithuanian novels

• In Event: Facing Contemporary Multilingualism

Abstract

This paper discusses manifestations of multilingualism in recent Lithuanian novels, e.g. Gabija Grušaitė’s novel Stasys Šaltoka: Vieneri metai [Cold East, transl. by Kipras Šumskas] (2017), Akvilina Cicėnaitė’s novel Anglų kalbos žodynas [A Dictionary of English] (2022), Vaiva Rykštaitė’s novel Mėlynas namas Havajuose [A Blue House in Hawaii] (2022), etc. In all selected texts, foreign words and phrases intrude into the Lithuanian narrative in various ways. The texts are analysed addressing both their sociolinguistic contexts and their aesthetic form and expression, in which multilingualism plays an important role. Drawing on theoretical propositions about literary multilingualism by Till Dembeck (2020), Marianna Deganutti (2022) and others, this paper seeks to discuss not only the manifestations of multilingualism in the selected novels, particularly, explicit multilingualism (how it is marked, placed, integrated, etc) and various forms of latent multilingualism, but also the functions multilingual structures perform in the texts (“experienced” and “aesthetic” multilingualism).

Short Bio

Rūta Eidukevičienė is an Associate Professor in German Literature and Culture and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania. After completion of her PhD studies at the University of Saarland, Germany, she has worked as a visiting professor at the universities of Saarland and Heidelberg. Her research interests include contemporary German and Lithuanian literature, comparative literature, and cultural studies. Since 2021, Rūta Eidukevičienė is director of the international writers and books festival “Kaunas Literature Week”.

Author

• Rūta Eidukevičienė, Vytautas Magnus University