The study of literary multilingualism exists within the context of recent attempts, by several scholars in comparative literature, to make sense of multilingual and/or global literary practices. From the translation zone (Apter) to born-translated (Walkowitz) or untranslatable fiction, these attempts have almost invariably involved translation, as a concept if not as a practice. What is, then, the place of translation when it comes to understanding multilingual and translingual writing? How does this theoretical debate relate to the actual practice of literary translation? And what happens to literary style when theorists of translation and translators experiment with multilingual writing or when translingual writers translate? The present discussion explores the hitherto undefined zone of creative interaction between translation and multilingual writing in the hope of contributing to the more conceptual debates from a hands-on perspective. It is based on the roundtable entitled “Stylistic Border Crossings in Multilingual and Translated (Con)texts” that was part of the Stylistic Border Crossings In and Beyond Translation conference held on March 9–10, 2023.1 The conference and the roundtable were organized by Eugenia Kelbert with the British Centre for Literary Translation and the East Centre, University of East Anglia.
Each of the three guests wears a combination of multiple hats that bridge theory and practice and include “translingual writer,” “literary translator,” “translation studies scholar,” “writer,” and “literary scholar.”
