THE “YES” BRIDGE ENCOUNTERS: Dialogue on migration, narration, translation

This informal dialogue between Sandra Bermann and Aleksandar Hemon considers the innately multilingual, transformative nature of all languages as it emphasises the political as well as literary potential of diasporic, dramatically translingual works. Taking Hemon’s recently published “macaronic ” novel, The World and All That It Holds (2023), as its central example, the chapter pays special attention to the interactions between migration, narrative and language change. It discusses the pertinent roles of languaging and translanguaging in the novel and the instances of language change highlighted in the text. As close ties between migration and translanguaging come to the fore, so do the authors’ reflections on the past and present efforts of nation states to reduce linguistic as well as racial and ethnic mixing. Given the epic structure of the novel, Bermann and Hemon address narrative issues of wandering, encounter, polyphony, dialogue and “home. ” But above all, they consider this macaronic text’s potential impact on its readers. The dialogue concludes with reflections on the novel’s eventual translations and some anticipated alterations in translation theory as well as comparative literature – reassessments that must nonetheless confront the historical reality of nation states and their ongoing power over language as well as migration.