Writing without Style: Translingualism as Spiritual Discipline

Abstract: Willfully taking on the challenge of writing in an adopted language, many translingual writers regard their activity as a spiritual discipline. Latin and Sanskrit serve no contemporary purpose, but their devotees apply themselves to it as a kind of ascesis reminiscent of Ignatius of Loyola's exercises in self-effacement. For Samuel Beckett, Milan Kundera, Aharon Appelfeld, and Jhumpa Lahiri, writing in an adopted language forces them into a kind of liberating constraint. They embrace its austerity.