Eva Hoffman | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 9 pages of analysis & critique of Eva Hoffman.

Eva Hoffman | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 9 pages of analysis & critique of Eva Hoffman.
This section contains 2,391 words
(approx. 8 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Review by Stanislaw Baranczak

SOURCE: Baranczak, Stanislaw. “The Confusion of Tongues.” New Leader 72, no. 3 (6 February 1989): 16-18.

In the following review, Baranczak discusses the importance of language to the immigrant experience as related in Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language.

Emigré, exile, expatriate—there may be more synonyms for these in Roget's Thesaurus, most of them probably beginning with an “e-” or “ex-,” those sad prefixes of exclusion. But the excluding “e-” has its antonymous companion, “in-,” as in inclusion or immigration. I suppose just about anybody who has ever crossed the frontier line between “e-” and “in-” has at least once experienced a profound sensation of semantic incongruity invading his existence. For the sake of brevity, let us call the sensation “the Babel syndrome.” I had my first touch of the Babel syndrome a couple of weeks after arriving in this country, at some crowded wine-and-cheese reception. Nursing a...

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This section contains 2,391 words
(approx. 8 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Review by Stanislaw Baranczak
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Critical Review by Stanislaw Baranczak from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.