Speaking in Tongues

By: J.M. Coetzee, Mariana Dimópulos

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eBook | 22 May 2025

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This is a book about languages, what languages can and what they cannot do.

In this dialogue between a Nobel Laureate and a leading translator, provocative ideas emerge about the evolution of language and the challenge of translation.

Language, historically speaking, has always been slippery. Two dictionaries provide two different maps of the universe: which one is true, or are both false? Speaking in Tongues - taking the form of a dialogue between Nobel-Laureate novelist J. M. Coetzee and eminent translator Mariana Dimopulos - explores questions that have constantly plagued writers and translators, now more than ever. Among them:

How can a translator liberate meanings imprisoned in the language of a text?
Why is the masculine form dominant in gendered languages while the feminine is treated as a deviation?
How should we counter the spread of monolingualism?
Should a translator censor racist or misogynistic language?
Does mathematics tell the truth about everything?

In the tradition of Walter Benjamin's seminal essay 'The Task of the Translator', Speaking in Tongues emerges as an engaging and accessible work of philosophy, shining a light on some of the most important linguistic and philological issues of our time.