Aspects of Internationalism : Language and Culture

This text consists of a collection of papers that focus on Esperanto as either a tool or a domain of academic activity. The only apparent exception is Saul Levin's paper, an articulate and unbiased argument against learning Esperanto.

This book consists of a collection of papers that focus on Esperanto as either a tool or a domain of academic activity. Esperanto is a well-established and significant linguistic and cultural phenomenon involving well over a million inhabitants of the globe. By argument and example, this collection implicitly raises the question whether the humanities and social sciences can continue to ignore this phenomenon without disavowing their role as human sciences. Contents: Preface; Can an Artificial Language Be More than a Hobby?; The Linguistic and Sociological Obstacles, Saul Levin; Esperanto Studies: An Overview, Humphrey Tonkin; Esperanto as an International Research Context, Jane Edwards; Esperanto and Literary Research, Ian M. Richmond; The Separation of Language and Culture, Marianne Lee; Esperanto: A Tool for International Education, Ian M. Richmond; Esperanto and Literary Translation: Its Potential as a Vehicle for the Study of Comparative Literature, James F. Cool; Esperanto Translation and Cultural Specificity, Ian M. Richmond; Esperanto Literature and the International Reader, Ian M. Richmond; Internationalism and Cultural Specificity in Esperanto Prose Fiction, Ian M. Richmond; Esperantaj Resumoj/Summaries in Esperanto; Contributors; About the Editor; Index.