Heteroglossic Masculinities: Multilingualism in Armée du salut and Princesa

Abstract

The article examines the literary representation of masculinities in the context of border crossings in the Mediterranean area and specifically the relationship between multilingualism and gender identity. The discussion is based on comparative close-readings of two auto-fictional novels which embody border crossings in the form of migration, globalization and (de)colonization: L’armée du salut (2006) by Abdellah Taïa and Princesa (1994) by Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque. The article argues that the novels’ representations of multilingualism and complex gender identities can be fruitfully understood in terms of Bakhtin’s notion of heteroglossia, and that both gender and linguistic practices shift as they are recontextualized socially and geographically.