The Role of Language and Sociolinguistics in Jenny Erpenbeck’s Go, Went, Gone

Transnational Literatures, Spring 2020

This paper was for my Transnational European Studies minor capstone course, Transnational Literatures, in which I was allowed to focus on any specific aspect of my assigned book that I wanted. I really was interested to talk about the linguistic markings of Erpenbeck’s novel, Go Went Gone, as it was a book about intercultural relations and the role of language learning in the immigration experience. This paper was definitely the most strict that I have ever been about using a specific lens to interpret a text, and it was a really a good exercise in cross-discipline analysis.

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