Words in Collision

For centuries, English-language writers have borrowed words and phrases from other languages in their fictional works. Words in Collision explores this tradition of language-mixing and its consequences. Returning to Shakespeare’s Henry V, Michael Ross asks why writers employ “foreign” phrases in their English-language texts, why this practice continues, and what it means. He finds that the insertion of “foreign elements,” rather than random or arbitrary, occurs in literary works that display a self-conscious preoccupation with language in general as a dynamic determinant of social relations. Discussing nineteenth-century works by Sir Walter Scott, Charlotte Brontë, and Henry James, the book demonstrates how multilingualism connects with themes of cosmopolitanism, estrangement, and resistance to social convention. In the second half of the book, the multilingual practices of canonical Anglo-American literature are compared to postcolonial texts by Caribbean, Nigerian, and Indian authors, including Chimamanda Adichie and Arundhati Roy, whose choice of language is fraught with complex moral and artistic implications. Ross’s readings reveal both crucial departures and surprising underlying continuities in linguistic traditions often thought to be deeply divided in time, space, and politics. The first extended treatment of language-mixing in English texts, Words in Collision is critical to understanding past practices and future prospects for multilingualism in fiction.

For centuries, English-language writers have borrowed words and phrases from other languages in their fictional works. Words in Collision explores consequences of this tradition of language-mixing, asking why writers employ “foreign” phrases in their English-language texts and how this practice has evolved over time and place.

Michael L. Ross is professor emeritus at McMaster University and the author of Designing Fictions: Literature Confronts Advertising.