The Multilingual Self

作者:Lvovich, Natasha

页数:136

出版时间:1997-4

价格:$ 41.75

isbn号码:9780805823202

具体描述

This book relates the author's stories about how languages have integrated her being, and defined and formed her sense of self. The idea of writing autobiographical stories of her multilingual life came from her long-term commitment to foreign language teaching and from a recent, extremely rich and valuable experience teaching English to immigrants in the U.S. While reading and studying various aspects of second-language-related-theory -- linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and sociolinguistics literature -- the author realized how estranged language learners are from all the research, speculations, hypotheses, and achievements of scholarship.

A Russian immigrant, the author tells stories to her ESL students to help them understand why and at what price successful language acquisition and acculturation is realistic. Not only can students learn from her stories which encourage discoveries about their own behaviors or problems, but they might want to respond and tell about their own struggles with a foreign language. By becoming writers and interpreters of her text and by making it their own, students can construct their own virtual texts. The stories told throughout are those of a language learner, who is also a linguist and language teacher. As such, they can bridge the gap between second language research and practical teaching and learning. Moreover, this book can help initiate language learners along with their teachers into scholarship.

Second language teachers and graduate students preparing for a teaching career might see this book as an illustration and validation of the studied theory and an inner voice of their students at the same time. Multidisciplinary by nature, it can also be used in several college courses such as cultural anthropology, anthropo- and socio-linguistics, sociology, multicultural education, ethnography, bilingualism, and the study of immigrant experience. There are numerous applications of the book in the educational field at various levels of adult learning programs which might be determined by the objectives and by the instructor's vision of it in the curriculum. It is also intended as a message to the general public and to all thinking individuals in search of identity. It will popularize the idea of the importance of foreign language learning, language education, linguistic literacy, and metalinguistic awareness, of illuminating self-discovery through the treasure of multilingual experience, capable of giving birth to a new, sophisticated, spiritually complex and enriched multicultural identity.

用户评价

我必须承认，阅读这部作品的过程，更像是一场智力上的马拉松，而非轻松的散步。它要求读者具备一定的开放性和对复杂概念的包容度。作者对语言学和符号学概念的运用极为娴熟，但绝非炫技，而是精准地服务于其核心论点——即“自我”是一个持续进行中的、永远未完成的翻译项目。书中对“文化休克”的描述超越了常见的旅游指南范畴，直指心灵深处的结构性震荡。它探讨了当既有的认知框架被彻底打碎后，我们如何重建意义的可能性。书的结尾部分尤其引人深思，它没有给出简单的答案，反而留下了一系列开放性的问题，鼓励读者继续这场内在的探索。整本书就像一盏高悬的灯塔，虽然光芒强烈，需要我们调整焦距才能看清，但一旦看清，它照亮的不仅仅是前方的道路，更是我们自身隐藏的广阔的内在景观。

读完这本书，我有一种强烈的冲动想立刻拿起一张世界地图，重新标记那些我曾经走过、甚至只是想象过的疆域。它不仅仅是关于语言学习或跨文化交流的指南，更像是一部深刻的哲学札记，探讨了我们如何通过“他者”的语言来理解我们自身。作者的笔触极其细腻，尤其是在描述那种“正在遗忘母语”的心态时，那种失根的漂浮感被捕捉得精准而痛苦。书中对于“翻译”行为本身的解构非常到位，它揭示了翻译不仅仅是词汇的转换，更是两种世界观的艰难对接，常常伴随着意义的损耗和不可避免的误解。这种对沟通本质的深层挖掘，让整本书的基调显得既严肃又充满了人性的温暖。我感觉作者仿佛是一位经验丰富的导游，带领我们穿梭于记忆迷宫和符号丛林之中，每一次穿行都伴随着对自身边界的一次重新审视和拓宽。

这部作品在探讨个体身份构建的复杂性方面展现出了一种令人耳目一新的视角。作者似乎并未满足于传统的单向度叙事，而是巧妙地编织了一个多层次的思维网络，引导读者去审视“自我”是如何在不同的语言环境、文化交际以及内在心绪的张力中被塑造、被解构，又被不断重塑的过程。尤其值得称道的是，书中对“失语”状态的描绘，那种介于理解与隔阂之间的微妙边缘感，被刻画得入木三分。它不是那种晦涩难懂的学术论述，反而带着一种近乎散文诗般的流畅和对人性深处困惑的温柔叩问。我特别欣赏作者在处理文化差异时所展现出的那种微妙的平衡感，既承认了差异的真实存在和它带来的挑战，又没有陷入文化相对主义的泥潭，而是力求在这些冲突的张力中寻找到一种动态的、流动的和谐。这种处理方式使得全书充满了张力和生命力，让人读完后久久不能平静，反复思量着自己生命旅途中那些被语言和文化界限所切割的片段。

这本书最让我感到震撼的是其对“沉默”的探讨。在充斥着语言噪音的世界里，作者将目光投向了那些无法言说、甚至被主流话语系统所压抑的声音。这种对“非语言交流”和“潜台词”的深入挖掘，揭示了身份建构中那些最脆弱也最真实的部分。作者没有简单地将语言视为工具，而是将其视为一种生命体的呼吸系统，当呼吸不畅时，整个系统都会出现危机。我尤其喜欢书中穿插的一些个人轶事，它们并非只是为了增加趣味性，而是作为理论论证的锚点，将抽象的哲学思考牢牢地固定在真实的生活体验之上。这种理论与实践的完美融合，使得本书既有学术的深度，又不失文学的感染力。它像是为那些在文化夹缝中成长起来的人提供了一面镜子，让我们看到自己的挣扎并非孤例，而是人类经验中一个普遍而深刻的面向。

这部书的叙事结构充满了后现代的碎片感，但这种碎片化却服务于一个宏大的主题：身份的非中心化。作者似乎有意避开了线性叙事的陷阱，转而采用了一种类似拼贴画的技法，将个人回忆、历史片段、语言学观察与社会评论交织在一起。这种结构要求读者投入极大的注意力，但回报是丰厚的。例如，书中关于“命名”的章节，对名字在不同文化中承载的重量和义务进行了令人震撼的剖析。它迫使我反思，我对自己名字的理解，是否仅仅是基于我被赋予的那个单一语境的理解？书中的节奏变化多端，时而如急流般迅猛，充满思辨的激情；时而又像在深夜静谧的图书馆中，只闻翻页的沙沙声，沉静而内省。这种起伏，使得阅读体验本身成为了一种对“多重自我”的体验式学习，非常适合那些寻求超越表面交流、直抵思想内核的读者。