[1] While the practice is age-old, the term is relatively new: French linguists such as Louis-Jean Calvet discussed "littérature exophone" since 1979,[2][3] while the German equivalent, Exophonie, was used within the field of literary and cultural studies by Susan Arndt, Dirk Naguschewski and Robert Stockhammer in 2007.
The scholar Yuri Kumagai wrote that it "is said to shatter the myth of unique difficulty of Japanese, and bring new perspectives and creative power into the language", and that it can challenge "categories that mark what/who is inside and outside".
[18] When asked why he didn’t write in his native language, Joseph Conrad replied, "I value too much our beautiful Polish literature to introduce into it my worthless twaddle.
"[19] It may defy definition: when Chika Unigwe was asked whether her writing felt Belgian or Nigerian, she said it "depended on the time of day ... some stories needed to be written in English, whereas others could only be told in Dutch".
The fr:Prix Rivarol was specifically awarded to novels in French by 'non-first language' authors, as was the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize for non-native German works.