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Writing Fiction in a Foreign Language | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| rowzee Diglot Newbie Latvia Joined 6809 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English Studies: French | Message 1 of 35 18 November 2008 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not a professional writer, but I occasionally develop ideas of stories mentally. Since I have read quite a lot of fiction in English, which is my second language, sometimes I find it easier to do that in English as well. On the other hand, when reading fiction I'm aware that I'm not always fully familiar with certain classes of vocabulary, slang for example. This has led me to question the possibility of using a foreign language as a basis of composing fiction. There are a few writers that have accomplished this and that we may find such individuals suggests that they have been sucessful, having brought their works to publication. So, my main question is, can it be expected from a person with [an advanced] fluency in a foreign language to be capable of composing works of fiction (literatature, if you like), provided, of course, that the literary skills of the person in question are of sufficient quality [to write in the native language]? My concern is that it seems there is always some upper bound in the knowledge of the target language that somehow limits the possibilities of expressing ideas as freely and diversely as a native speaker might.
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| skeeterses Senior Member United States angelfire.com/games5Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6609 days ago 302 posts - 356 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Spanish | Message 2 of 35 18 November 2008 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you're not a professional writer, there isn't any need to worry about things like grammar and vocabulary
limitations. The Internet is about free speech and you can put your short stories on your website in any language you want to. Of course, actually getting your works published in a book is pretty hard, even for a native speaker, so don't feel bad if a major publisher turns down your work. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| johntitor1 Newbie China myspace.com/niky2006Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5841 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Studies: French | Message 3 of 35 18 November 2008 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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yeah, I agree the opinion of the upstairs, IMHO, I don't think it's an inapproachable thing to master a foreign language totally to get the level of yr own mother language. If u r sure about yr ability in fiction writing with yr first language, then U can also write some formal things in yr familar second language, that depends on yr determination and yr sensitive feeling to the writing.
Mentioned to the publishing, after the invention of the internet, I never think it's still an important issue if the publisher will publish my works. If good enuf, don't worry the popularity... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Liface Triglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Lif Joined 5849 days ago 150 posts - 237 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 4 of 35 18 November 2008 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Do you have any examples of famous writers who published in non-native languages?
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| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6139 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 5 of 35 18 November 2008 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | ||
joseph Conrad Vladimir Nabokov Nonnos, an Egyptian in the 4th or 5th century, wrote in homeric Greek taht was in his time already 1200 years old. Dozens of authors who wrote in Latin through the centuries including Descartes, isaac Newton. Dozens of authors who wrote in Classical Chinese over the ages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dmg Diglot Senior Member Canada dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7002 days ago 555 posts - 605 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch, Esperanto | Message 6 of 35 18 November 2008 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, the classic example is Vladimir Nabokov who was Russian but his most famous work (Lolita) was in English. Although, according to wikipedia he grew up speaking Russian, English, and French in his household so these languages weren't learned later in life. I think there may already be a thread on this in the forum section on polyglots. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6100 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 7 of 35 19 November 2008 at 2:12am | IP Logged | ||
Conrad's book, Heart of Darkness, was the book we read for a year in English class in high school. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6484 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 8 of 35 19 November 2008 at 2:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Dmitri Saviski, (homepage) is a soviet immigrant in Paris, writes in French. The publishers are happy with his writings. He wasn't a bilingua, his style in Russian is fabulous.
Edited by Siberiano on 19 November 2008 at 2:56am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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