Teaching Translit: An Unsettled and Unsettling Genre

Abstract

Translit is a new genre of literature characterised by a fragmented narrative structure which shifts, not only between different periods and places, but also between different genres. The term was first coined by author Douglas Coupland in his book review for The New York Times on 8 March 2012. In the weeks that followed, ‘translit’ appeared in a number of literary blogs which debated the validity of the term and the likelihood of its ‘slip** into the lexicon’ (Coupland 2012).¹ Following this, translit largely disappeared from view until, in 2015, the term was referenced by a small number of academic essays and books in both the USA and UK.² Translit has proved to be of interest chiefly to postcolonial scholars and theorists of contemporary literature more broadly, although it is also referenced briefly in the writings of the eminent geographer David Lowenthal (2015: 68).