Exophony
Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue
Format:Paperback
Publisher:John Murray Press
Published:24th Jul '25
Should be back in stock very soon
'Tawada's strange, exquisite book toys with ideas of language, identity and what it means to own someone else's story or one's own' The New Yorkeron Tawada's Memoirs of a Polar Bear
Are you formed by your mother tongue?
How might the world unfold if you stepped outside of its rhythms?
In this playful and daring interrogation of language, the globally acclaimed Yoko Tawada reveals the poetics, politics and potential of existing outside one's mother tongue. From Senegalese writers discarding colonial-enforced French to the increasing use of loan words in her native Japanese, Tawada deconstructs the ways in which the world shapes and is shaped by languages: their hidden systems of power, their sweeping histories and, ultimately, the people who claim, reject, adapt or romanticise them.
Exophony is an invitation to revel in the possibilities that emerge when we dare to seek beyond the familiar - and a sharp, incisive series of essays in which Tawada's erudite wit and multidimensional curiosity sing.
A polyglot's travelogue, steeped in the joys and peculiarities of exploring a foreign language . . . [Exophony is] a playful journey toward the space between languages. * Kirkus Reviews *
The beauty of Tawada's work is that she treats the uncertain footing of the second language learner-and of the native speaker looking back on their first language with new eyes-not as a source of anxiety, but as a source of boundless creative potential. -- Reed McConnell * The Baffler *
Tawada explores the fertile ground of intermingled languages in this scintillating essay collection. Playful and erudite, these essays offer valuable insights into Tawada's own writing and her readings of classic world literature. * Publishers Weekly *
Originally published in Japan in 2003, National Book Award-winning Tawada's enigmatic essay collection-her first in English translation-arrives meticulously enabled by Hofmann-Kuroda, who impressively renders Tawada's inventive linguistic acrobatics. For audiences familiar with Tawada's recent novels, Exophony is an ideal complement, illuminating, exploring, and experiencing 'the space between languages...the poetic ravine between them.' -- Terry Hong * Booklist *
Doubles as a clever metatextual meditation on its own composition. -- Becca Rothfeld * TLS *
In its collisions of anecdote, history, and linguistic inquiry, Exophony advances a quietly radical theory of literature. Tawada's essays unfold like tidepools-shallow at first glance, but teeming with unpredictable life. -- Rhoda Feng * Foreign Policy *
In these deft essays, Tawada, who writes in both Japanese and German, wanders through cities and languages, treating every border crossing as an adventure. * The New Yorker *
Tawada asks what it means to exist outside of one's mother tongue-whether we can truly hear something using languages or ideas that are received and ready-made. Holding uncertainties, held by uncertainties, the languages Tawada seeks are not ones she wishes to command so much as to be changed by. -- Declan Fry * Kill Your Darlings *
Exophony, of course, offers no answers to the condition of writing outside one's mother tongue.... Rather, Tawada collects luminous tales and tidbits: lanternfish illuminating unexplored depths. * Newcity Lit *
ISBN: 9780349704197
Dimensions: 214mm x 134mm x 18mm
Weight: 199g
192 pages