“Reading Together” Two Historical Novels in Afan Oromo and Amharic: Linguistic Diversity in the Ethiopian Literary Field

Ethiopian monolingual language policies have had a negative impact on literary practices and studies; however, it is an area highly neglected in Ethiopian literary studies. The present article contributes to this gap through a multilingual comparative approach that adopts a method of “reading togeth...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in African literatures Vol. 55; no. 2; pp. 150 - 169
Main Author: Roba, Ayele Kebede
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Bloomington Indiana University Press 22.06.2025
Subjects:
14th century
20th century
Amharic
Analysis
Comparative analysis
Comparative studies
Historical fiction
History
Italian language
Language policy
Languages
Literary criticism
Multilingualism
Native languages
Novels
Oromo language
Politics
Postcolonialism
Semitic languages
Spoken language
Study abroad
Writing
Ethiopia
Addis Ababa Ethiopia
ISSN:0034-5210, 1527-2044, 1527-2044
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Ethiopian monolingual language policies have had a negative impact on literary practices and studies; however, it is an area highly neglected in Ethiopian literary studies. The present article contributes to this gap through a multilingual comparative approach that adopts a method of “reading together” of the novels in two widely spoken languages: Amharic and Afan Oromo. Reading together two historical novels, Yeburqa Zimita [ Burqa’s Silence ] and Yoomi Laataa? [ When Shall It Be? ], from the perspective of the novels’ engagement with multilingualism enables an often-neglected comparative study between the literatures in different Ethiopian languages. The article examines how and why the novels are open to multilingualism and how their positionality in different literary traditions conditions their representation of multilingualism. It also demonstrates how a reading method that takes multilingualism in the novel as an analytical category overcomes disjunctive and conflicted Ethiopian literary practices and studies.
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ISSN:0034-5210
1527-2044
1527-2044
DOI:10.2979/ral.00064