Literary Bilingualism: Past and Present

The paperdeals with some aspects related to the history and present state of bilingualism as the phenomenon of literary creation. Nowadays it is often connected with the process of globalization. The latter really has a great influence on the said phenomenon. But at the same time, it has quite a rich history and was already known in antiquity. Naturally, in each period literary bilingualism is characterized with specific features, defined by the historical and cultural context. This context in its turn depends on different factor (linguistic, political, religious, etc.). One of the problems of literary bilingualism is also the question of the balance between the use of two languages, especially of its probable role as the stimulant of the process known in sociolinguistics as the language shift.