Speaking in Tongues

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 Dim pulos - 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.