The Right Not to Translate: The Linguistic Stakes of Immigration in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah

Much of the discussion surrounding Adichie's Americanah centers on her protagonists' trenchant observations about race and identity politics in the United States and her depiction of the harsh realities encountered by the immigrant subject. Less commentary has been directed toward the related feat of the novel being a polyvocal tour de force. In this article, I examine the patent multilingualism of the novel and emphasize ways in which Adichie foregrounds the constant translational negotiations of her protagonists to color the linguistic experience of immigration and illustrate her characters' awareness of how and when they must translate or sublimate their alterity. Through the novel's pronounced heteroglossia, Adichie legitimizes voices outside of the norms of the global literary marketplace and establishes her own capacious and pluralistic idiom.