Starting with Salman Rushdie's assertion that even though something
is always lost in translation, something can always be gained,
Martha Cutter examines the trope of translation in twenty
English-language novels and autobiographies by contemporary ethnic
American writers. She argues that these works advocate a politics
of language diversity--a literary and social agenda that validates
the multiplicity of ethnic cultures and tongues in the United
States.
Cutter studies works by Asian American, Native American, African
American, and Mexican American authors. She argues that translation
between cultures, languages, and dialects creates a new language
that, in its diversity, constitutes the true heritage of the United
States. Through the metaphor of translation, Cutter demonstrates,
writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Sherman Alexie, Toni
Morrison, and Richard Rodriguez establish a place within American
society for the many languages spoken by multiethnic and
multicultural individuals.
Cutter concludes with an analysis of contemporary debates over
language policy, such as English-only legislation, the recognition
of Ebonics, and the growing acceptance of bilingualism. The focus
on translation by so many multiethnic writers, she contends, offers
hope in our postmodern culture for a new condition in which
creatively fused languages renovate the communications of the
dominant society and create new kinds of identity for multicultural
individuals.