INTRODUCTION

The 'translingual paradigm' expressed in such metaphors as 'mother tongue,' 'stepmother tongue,' 'lover's tongue,' 'family romance,' 'monolingual,' and 'post-monolingual condition' is interrogated in Ania Spyra's analysis of Xiao lu Guo's novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, written in 'interlanguage,' on behalf of a Chinese visitor to England and a learner of English. Three reviews of recent volumes contributing to scholarship in literary translingualism frame our discussion: on Transcultural Writers and Novels in the Age of Global Mobility (2015) by A. Dagnino, a creative combination of theory, interviews with writers, and fictionalized travel (reviewed by Michael Jacklin); on English as a Literature in Translation (2016) by F. Doloughan, making a case of writers who adopted English for what she calls "narratives of translation" (reviewed by Julia Tidigs); and on Translingual Narration: Colonial and Postcolonial Taiwanese Fiction and Film (2015) by B. Scruggs, describing fiction and film written in Taiwan in Japanese or Chinese during and post-colonization (reviewed by Elaine Wong).