Literary postures and second languages

On Stefan Themerson and Věra Linhartová’s positions in literary fields

Abstract

This article discusses Věra Linhartová and Stefan Themerson’s literary translingualism from the perspective of French sociology of literature. It works with the premises of field theory (Pierre Bourdieu) and its followers (Pascale Casanova’s world republic of letters and Jérôme Meizoz’s literary posture). It traces how the exophonic experience (the experience of authors writing in their second or third language) and the reflection of this experience are incorporated into the formation of Linhartová’s and Themerson’s literary postures. The proclamation of personal postmonolingual liberation from their first languages that both authors declare is then read in a social context. In this context, the authors’ postures: (1) position them at the autonomous poles of the literary fields of the receiving cultures, and (2) contribute to the autonomization of the potential field of literary translingualism.