i talked to Litehouse about my writing process & about what being an exophonic writer means to me  i am so grateful for the latter prompt - truthfully, it is a question i had never considered before, as writing poetry in a language that is not my mother tongue has always come quite naturally. it was great to reflect on the power of language, and on the way it shapes the way i experience myself & the world! 

snippet: To me, being an exophonic writer means that this grand, beautifully interwoven and formidable world is my home. I am not bound to any place and I can make my home in those around me. Moreover, writing in English gifted me the courage to shed olden ideas about who I thought I was, and it gifted me the space to meet unknown parts of myself in wondrous ways.

https://tothelitehouse.com/2020/12/22/tea-nicolae/

This is Yoko Tawada, a Japanese author who also writes in German. She has won many prizes. In this interview, she discusses the meaning and relevance of exophony (living and speaking in a foreign tongue). 

I don’t know much about Japan as a whole, so I was not familiar with Tawada’s work. However, I have noticed a number of Asian authors who become exophonic writers, particularly using European languages.

I wonder whether the use of letters, rather than characters, has some kind of appeal for them. In this video, Tawada critiques the linguistic habit in Japan of leaving a sentence open in the assumption that someone else will understand the rest of your meaning. She says this might not happen. 

As someone who doesn’t know much Japanese, I cannot comment on this. 

I have to say, however, that the little I know of Japanese culture is interesting. Recently, I learned about Danshari minimalism, the idea whereby you continually reduce your needs and possessions in all areas of life. 

I also like the Kanji calligraphy and art. As someone who writes by hand, I was delighted to see that Tawada usually writes using a pencil and Japanese manuscript paper. It seems that Japanese culture places a great emphasis on neatness and economic living, which makes me wonder whether Japanese is a succint language. 

Can any Japanese people comment on this?

Several things that Tawada said in this video resonate with me. For example, she found it difficult to translate one of her books from Japanese to German, because she wanted to write the work in a whole new way. She also values seeing from a different perspective through exophonic writing. 

I write in German, though I have not published anything in the language. Personally, I like the more formal and complex style of expression, which can seem wordy in English. I also find the stricter grammar more attractive, compared to the fluidity of English. 

An astonishing article about writers who write in a foreign language. 

Previously, I thought I was the only one-- and rather mad-- for wanting to write in French. Furthermore, I read „Mönch und Räuber“, and found several parts of German expression to be elegant and surprisingly accessible. But I have never put much effort into pursuing this, sometimes considering it an additional burden. 

I do have a consistent habit of writing in French for everyday lists, which I will continue. But little did I know that there is a whole category of writers who write in a foreign languages. More importantly, I recognise many of them: Nabokov and Conrad, for starters! These are exophonic writers, or translingual writers.

Quite a few have said that they express themselves better in a foreign language. I am more encouraged than ever to write prodigiously in French particularly, as well as German. Ultimately, I would like to write diary entries in Russian. (The same way Russians used to write their diaries in French!).