Brussels International: Aleksandra Lun on mother tongues and other languages
![Aleksandra lun merlijn van doomernik](/imager/files/Auteurs-beelden/83858/aleksandra-lun-©-merlijn-van-doomernik_6e691d99ec6210a5a717f7d42f01333d.jpg)
Location
Category
Price
Language
How important is the language you write in? And does it have to be your mother tongue? Apparently not, according to the Brussels-based Spanish-speaking and Polish born writer Aleksandra Lun. As someone with first-hand knowledge, she talks to fellow ‘expat writer’ Nicky Aerts about her novel The Palimpsests and the tense relationship between national, linguistic, and artistic identity.
Spanish-Polish
Aleksandra Lun was born in Poland in 1979. She moved to Spain at the age of 19, before settling in Brussels ten years ago. To say that she has a knack for languages would be an understatement. As a literary translator working from English, French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian and Romanian into Polish, she is currently learning Dutch and wrote her debut novel The Palimpsests, not in her native Polish, but in Spanish.
‘Antarctican’
In The Palimpsests, Lun tells the story of a Polish man who ends up in a psychiatric asylum in Liège, where he undergoes therapy because he wants to write, not in his mother tongue, but in ‘Antarctican’. In the process, he crosses paths with famous precursors who also wrote in a language different from their mother tongue, such as Samuel Beckett, Agota Kristóf, Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov. The Palimpsests is available in French (éd. du Sous-Sol), Dutch (uitg. Pluim), English (Godine) and in the original Spanish version (Minúscula).
essay
For the Passa Porta Festival, Aleksandra Lun has written ‘Antimatter’, a penetrating poetic essay on the relationship with the mother tongue, the difference between literary and national identity, and the challenge that multilingualism poses for an author. So, plenty of material for a discussion.
See also the digital close-reading session with Aleksandra Lun on 23 March.
Passa Porta, Uitgeverij Pluim, Instituto Cervantes Brusela, Beursschouwburg
picture aleksandra lun © merlijn van doomernik
Coming soon at
![Guadalupe Nettel copy Mely Álvarez3](/imager/files/Auteurs-beelden/177219/Guadalupe_Nettel_copy_MelyÁlvarez3_e86177017dd3ff4711e3e0e6ec2b880e.jpg)
Rencontre avec Guadalupe Nettel
De livre en livre, l’autrice mexicaine francophile Guadalupe Nettel (La Vie de couple des poissons rouges, Après l'hiver, L'Oiseau rare) confirme son statut de fascinant corps étranger de la littérature latino-américaine.
![Bregje Hofstede Adriaanvan Dis](/imager/files/Auteurs-beelden/180696/BregjeHofstede_AdriaanvanDis_b4f5f7834ce6b56950b513832508faa4.png)
Club Boomer met Bregje Hofstede, Adriaan van Dis en Bent Van Looy
In Club Boomer treffen Bregje Hofstede en Adriaan van Dis elkaar voor een generatie-overbruggend gesprek over het leven als schrijver en het schrijven om te leven. De auteurs lezen en becommentariëren elkaars werk en gaan met gastheer Bent van Looy op zoek naar gelijkenissen en verschillen tussen de generaties.
![Felwine Sarr Tania Vervonen](/imager/files/Auteurs-beelden/182500/FelwineSarr_TaniaVervonen_33e9e8fb64a501d785a86e94886bd1b0.png)
Conversation entre Felwine Sarr et Taina Tervonen
Derrière les objets issus des guerres coloniales que nous admirons dans les musées se trouve une histoire violente qu’il est temps d’écouter. L'économiste et romancier sénégalais Felwine Sarr et la journaliste finlandaise Taina Tervonen se sont tous deux emparés, bien que dans des genres distincts, de cette passionnante question des trophées coloniaux.