On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language
by Ilan Stavans
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Description
"Yiddish, Spanish, Hebrew, and English - at various points in Ilan Stavans's life, each of these has been the prominent and controversial scholar's primary language. His family's immigrant experience took them from Eastern Europe to the Jewish ghetto of Mexico City, which Stavans abandoned for Israel and subsequently the United States. In this rich memoir, the linguistic chameleon outlines his remarkable cultural heritage from his birth in politically fragile Mexico, through his years as a show more student activist, a young Zionist in Israel, a student of theology in New York to his career now as a noted academic and writer." "Since survival has meant borrowing other people's languages and pretending they were his own, Stavans offers a view of his journey from the perspective of words. Along the way, he introduces his remarkable family; his brother, a musical wunderkind; his father, a Mexican soap opera star; his grandmother, who emigrated from Eastern Europe to Mexico in 1929. Masterfully weaving personal reminiscences with a provocative investigation into language acquisition and cultural code-switching. On Borrowed Words is a memorable exploration of Stavans's search for his place in the world."--Jacket. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I have mixed feelings about Stavans. He's undeniably sharp - I love his notion that the US should consider Spanish a native language, for example, or his refusal to reduce Latines to "brown" - but he often slides towards self indulgence (Ilan, we don't want to hear about your dreams! In. every. damn. book!) and self regard. In short, worth reading but expect to be annoyed.
He writes as well as he speaks!
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Translingualism
191 works; 4 members
Author Information
129+ Works 2,476 Members
Ilan Stavans (born Ilan Stavchansky on April 7, 1961, in Mexico City) is a Mexican-American, essayist. He is the author of "The Hispanic Condition", "The Riddle of Cantinflas", and "The One-Handed Pianist & Other Stories" as well as the editor of "The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories" and a dictionary of Spanglish, among other volumes. He has been a show more National Book Critics Circle Award nominee, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Latino Literature Prize, among other honors. He teaches at Amherst College. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Fiction and Literature, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 868.6409 — Literature & rhetoric Spanish Literature Spanish miscellaneous writings 20th Century 1945-2000
- LCC
- PQ7079.2 .S78 .Z47 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures Spanish literature Provincial, local, colonial, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 87
- Popularity
- 367,414
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.06)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
