Translingual Theory: Steven Kellman’s Studies

In the modern world under the conditions of globalization, interest in the phenomenon of transcultural text is steadily increasing. Familiar terms of monoculture become irrelevant for describing modern cultural phenomena, in this connection we found that the term “bilingual” is insufficient, not fully reflecting the essence of the processes occurring in the writer’s thinking and literary text. We concluded that the term “translingual” is the most preferable and succinct. It includes the notion of a mutually enriching dialog of cultures, not just a nominal distinction of languages. The study of various approaches to the research of the process of transculturation, which is most vividly reflected in translingual literature, is conditioned by the need to expand the paradigm from which the literary bi-, poly- and translingual experience of the Russian-speaking world is to be considered. This unique phenomenon cannot be studied only within the framework of the narratives of the new age that has established itself in Europe, or exclusively in the logic of European modernity. If we set a task to find scientific works on transculturalism or translingual literature in Russian, we will encounter a negligible number of them. However, the reason for this will not be the lack of researchers’ interest in the subject of study, but it will be due to a difference in wording. The fact is that the term “transcultural literature” has not yet taken root on the territory of, for example, the post-Soviet space: the term “bilingual” literature is more often used to designate the subject of study. That is why in this article we will first outline the boundaries and define the essence of the research: we will consider the term “bilingualism”, its types, the relevance of this concept in the modern world in general and in the post-Soviet space in particular, compare it with the term “transculturality”, etc.; then we will prove why the term “translingual” has certain and obvious advantages over the term “bilingual”, and after that we will turn to the figure of Stephen Kellman as an apologist of the theory of transcultural literature. Within the framework of this paper we will analyze some of the scientific works of Russian-speaking researchers who write articles, monographs devoted to this topic.