The “Gift”: Synesthesia in Translingual Texts

Abstract

This interdisciplinary article explores the relationship between multilingualism and synesthesia (neuro- psychological blend of senses) using textual data from several translingual authors—writers who write in their non-native language (L2). I briefly summarize the existing research on synesthesia, primarily its relationship to language, cognition, and emotionality, and share my own multilingual synesthetic perceptions exemplified in my published work. I theorize that ‘translingual synesthesia’ is a complex cross-modal metaphor and a spontaneous imagistic ‘device,’ possibly enhanced by or concurrent with multilingualism, which allows writers to transcend cognitive and linguistic realms and to embody L2 with personal imagery while simultaneously creating an aesthetic effect of “de-familiarization of the word.” Applied to language learning and teaching, synesthesia lends a view into learners’ diverse subjectivities and their lingua-cultural and lingua-emotional dispositions, which can be modeled by language teachers.