Leonard Forster (1913–1997)

Polyglossia or multilingualism in literature is a fairly marginal area but has existed throughout the ages as these five essays based on the 1968 Carle Lectures at the University of Otago (NZ) by Leonard Forster demonstrate. The lecture on the Middle Ages shows how troubadours and Minnesänger wrote multi-lingual poems blending Latin with (Old-high) German, French, Provençal and Catalan. (Yes, I can read all those languages, though Latin only rudimentary). During the Renaissance and Baroque emblem books were popular which combined multi-lingual versions of poems in pairs or triple languages combining English, French and Dutch. John Milton may have been inspired by the Dutch Seventeenth Century poet Joost Vondel when he wrote «Paradise Lost». Besides in English, Milton composed verses in Latin. Goethe wrote poetry in German, English and French, as did Stefan George who also wrote poems in two languages invented by himself. Rilke wrote poetry in German, Italian, Russian and French.

The Twentieth Century saw a proliferation of use of foreign languages in literature, particularly by T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound who combined Latin, Greek, German, French, Provençal, Italian, Spanish and Chinese in the «Cantos». Forster shows how Hans Arp influenced James Joyce in adopting a mind boggling multi-lingual word play, investing deep in subconscious association in «Finnegan's Wake». Reading the latter requires highly specialized and multilingual capability.

Very inspirational and an encouragement to all students to invest in learning more than one foreign language.… (more)