In Conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri
How does language shape identity? How can writing be a powerful way to explore and redefine who we are? The British-American author shares her thoughts and inspirations in Athens.
While at Barnard College, Jhumpa Lahiri made the remarkable decision to try writing in a new language. She saw writers there daring to use other languages, and this exposure planted the seeds for what would later become a radical act of literary reinvention.
In a June 12 discussion with Columbia Global Center Athens Director Stefanos Gandolfo at the Museum of the History of the University of Athens, Lahiri — author of Interpreter of Maladies, In Other Words, and Translating Myself and Others — dismissed the idea of having a singular “mother tongue,” and described her decision to learn and write in Italian as a liberating break from familial and cultural expectations. She described writing in this new language as a freeing experience.
Lahiri’s reflections show how embracing a new language does not mean abandoning identity, but rather expanding it.
