Invention of Monolingualism

David Gramling is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of German Studies at the University of Arizona, USA. His research focuses on the intersections of social multilingualism, literary translation, mass migration, queer studies, nationalism, and critical theory. With Deniz Göktürk, Anton Kaes, and Andreas Langenohl, he is co-editor of two major sourcebooks on migration and multiculturalism in Germany since 1955: Germany in Transit (2007) and Transit Deutschland (2011). He is also a working literary translator, and a member of the American Literary Translators' Association.

The Invention of Monolingualism is an engaging, well written, and carefully researched book. Gramling combines work in applied linguistics, literary studies, musical theory, and citizenship studies in a way that is genuinely and deeply transdisciplinary. Its arguments are groundbreaking, offering a provocative and timely commentary on the lack of theoretical engagement with monolingualism as a social and political force. The book has considerable significance not only for applied linguistics but other fields that are affected by the ongoing normative influence of monolingualism.-

• Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction1 Monolingualism: A Users’ Guide2 Kafka’s Well-Tempered Piano3 The Passing of World Literaricity4 Right of Languages, Rites of UntranslatabilityEpilogue: Into the LinguaceneWorks CitedIndex