Make Yourself at Home

What about foreign authors who write in English? There are many writers who are from non-English speaking corners of the world who write excellent novels in English, allowing the reader to see inside the author's own world. Writers like V.S. Naipaul, Chinua Achebe, and Salman Rushdie are all foreign born writers who have written all or mostly in English. Their contributions to the world's perspective of their own home societies is very relevant.

Michael Dirda of the Washington Post recently wrote a review ("Half a century ago, Chinua Achebe changed the face of African literature") on the publication of the 50th anniversary publication of the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, remarking how the book conveys "a mythic, timeless quality to his small postage-stamp of Africa." Dirda brings up the fact that Achebe wrote a language perceived by many of his countrymen as the language of colonizers, but Achebe argued that English is lingua franca for Africa, a language of convenience. One may even argue that his book reached larger audience because it was originally written in English and then translated into 50 languages.

But I would argue that when an author writes in a second language, even a language they are fluent in, they don't write as comfortably. Writers write for their audience. It's like when you have guests in your home, you act and talk a certain way. When it's just you and your family you're more at home. Translated literature invites the reader to come in and make themselves at home.

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