Waka Aoyama (The University of Tokyo)
View Working Paper [PDF] – Prologue – published December 2024
View Working Paper [PDF] – Chapter 1 – published January 2025
View Working Paper [PDF] – Chapter 2 – published February 2025
View Working Paper [PDF] – Chapter 3 – published April 2025
View Working Paper [PDF] – Chapter 4 – published May 2025
View Working Paper [PDF] – Chapter 5 – published July 2025
View Working Paper [PDF] – Chapter 6 – published September 2025
Abstract: These essays are the first drafts of chapters for an autoethnographic fiction provisionally titled Futsuno Maruchiringaru (An Ordinary Multilingual): Alice’s Adventures in Multilingual Japan, scheduled for publication in 2027; from June 2024 to February 2027, approximately twenty chapters, including a prologue and an epilogue, are being prepared in Japanese. Based on the author’s personal experiences, the work follows a character named Alice, born and raised in Japan, whose first language is Japanese, and portrays her everyday use of multiple languages. Japan is often misunderstood as a “monolingual society,” but this work demonstrates that it is, in fact, a “multilingual society,” critically reexamining the notions of ordinariness and equality in postwar Japan from the perspective of language use. Themes such as diversity, coexistence, colonial and wartime aggression, and the power of language are explored through narratives of homeland loss and regeneration; at the same time, the work encourages critical reflection on our unawareness of the privileges of “Japanese” and “English” and the linguistic hierarchies structuring our lives, aiming to evoke readers’ own “language stories.” Grounded in critical metalinguistic awareness, the project seeks to explore the possibilities of creating a socially just world, and, in preparation for a future English edition—and to explore the possibilities and limits of translation—English versions of all chapters will also be included.
Keywords: Multilingual Japan, Language Use, Ordinariness and Egalitarianism, Colonial and Wartime Aggression, Critical Metalinguistic Awareness
要約: 本作は、2027年度に出版予定の自伝的民族誌的フィクション『ふつうのマルチリンガル――多言語社会日本におけるアリスの冒険』（仮題）の各章の初稿であり、2024年6月から2027年2月にかけて、プロローグとエピローグを含む約20章が日本語で執筆される予定である。著者自身の経験に基づき、日本生まれ日本育ち、母語が「日本語」であるアリスという人物が日常的に多言語を使う姿を描き、日本がしばしば「モノリンガル社会」と誤解される一方で、実際には「マルチリンガル社会」であることを示し、戦後日本における「ふつう」や「平等主義」の概念を言語使用の観点から批判的に問い直す。多様性・共生・植民地主義や戦時加害性・言葉の力といったテーマを故郷喪失と再生の物語を通じて描き出すとともに、「日本語」や「英語」の特権性や生活を形づくる言語的ヒエラルキーへの無自覚さについて批判的反省を促し、読者自身の「言語の物語」を呼び覚ますことを目指す。批判的メタ言語意識を軸に、社会的に公正な世界を構想する可能性を探る試みであり、将来の英語版出版に備えると同時に翻訳の可能性と限界を探るために、全章に英訳を付す。
キーワード： マルチリンガル社会としての日本、言語使用、ふつう／平等主義、植民地主義・戦時加害性、批判的メタ言語意識
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