AUTOBIOGRAPHY REVISITED: A TRANSLINGUAL/TRANSCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY REVISITED: A TRANSLINGUAL/TRANSCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Author:  Z.M. Chemodurova

Affiliation:  Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia

Abstract:  The article examines a unique variety of autobiographical narrative created by bilingual authors in their second, non-primary language and defined in the research as a translingual autobiography. Using a recent autobiography by the Canadian actor and writer of the Chinese origin Simu Liu as its case study the article explores cognitive dominants of the translingual narrative and hypothesizes a key role of transcultural authorial modality in creating this generic variety of autobiography. The methodology used in the research comprises elements of stylistic, cognitive and sociolinguistic analyses strengthened by recent findings in interlinguoculturology and translingual studies. The article offers a complex analysis of the translingual life-story postulating a combination of three strategies at the heart of the created text which ensure manifestation of the transcultural modality of the translingual author: translingual creativity, transcultural reflection and adaptation. The article makes an original contribution to the interdisciplinary research of translingual texts by proving the hypothesis that translingual autobiography as a sample of literary non-fiction manifests its translingual creativity and cultural hybridity per se, as a translingual author while sharing their life story with the reader tends to resort to the above-mentioned textual strategies representing their worldview of metacognitive and metalingual creative personalities. The article also contributes to the further development of Translingual Studies by introducing the concept of transcultural/translingual competence of modern readers and defining it as an ability of contemporary addressees to perceive and process a transcultural text as culturally hybrid, axiologically ambivalent and a product of a translingual author’s creativity. The overall outcome testifies to the importance of further research into varied mechanisms of expressing transcultural authorial modality in different text types, and to the relevance of investigating possible ways to develop readers’ transcultural competence.

Keywords:  translingual autobiography, transcultural authorial modality, Author Model,
translingual creativity, transcultural reflection, adaptation, transcultural/translingual competence.

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Works cited
Liu Simu. We were dreamers. An immigrant Superhero origin story. William Collins, 2022.

For citation:  Chemodurova, Z. M. (2026). Autobiography revisited: a translingual/transcultural perspective. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 1, 63-76.

Pages:  63-76