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Multilingual Living presents speakers' own accounts of the challenges and advantages of living in several languages at individual, family and societal levels. Individuals note profound differences in their sense of themselves, their relationships and their parenting, depending on which language they use - their experience highlights the interlinking of language, subjectivity and identity construction. The author further considers effects of the hierarchy of languages and power relationships. The book provides rich interview material of considerable interest to sociolinguists, psychologists, sociologists and lay readers interested in language and identity and in the dynamics of bilingual and multilingual living.
CHARLOTTE BURCK is a Consultant Systemic Psychotherapist, Trainer and Researchers in the Child and Family Department of the Tavistock Clinic, London, UK. Her other books include Gender and Family Therapy (with Gwyn Daniel) and Gender, Power and Relationships (with Bebe Speed).
'This is a delightful, scholarly, moving and important work, in which the voices of people immersed in multilingual living can be heard giving weight to ideas on hybridity and postmodern multiplicity. Real life pokes its head in here, triumphantly demonstrating what it means to live in a linguistically complex world. Social research should always be this good.' - Stephen Frosh, Professor of Psychology and Vice-master of Birkbeck College,University of London.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Researching Multilingualism and Multilingual Identities
The Research Framework
Childhoods in Several Languages
Adulthoods in Several Languages: Constructions of Self and of Language
Language Identities and Power Relationships: Strategies of Hybridization
Language Use and Family Relationships
Positioning the Researcher
Concluding Discussion
Appendixes
Protocol for Research Interview
Transcription Notations
References
Index
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