ABSTRACT
The focus of the chapter is on single body parts and their use as metaphors for multilingualism. Leaving the field of the well-organized, hierarchically structured body allows for a more subjective view of language inspired by practical uses and various forms of creativity. The contrasting and complementary metaphors of the tongue and the eye articulate a twofold vision of multilingualism. If the tongue is centred on the question of articulation and expression, the eye primarily revolves around perception and cognition. Tongues are flexible; they can easily twist and turn this way and the other (Anzaldúa, Özdamar, Tawada). Furthermore, the tongue can adapt to any kind of language and thus articulate a whole array of diverse subjectivities. On the other hand, eyes allow to shift from one perspective to the other and to move back and forth between diverging points of view (Müller). In the eyes of a foreign language, the mother-tongue reveals unexpected dimensions. With each language, one grows a new pair of eyes and can acquire a different understanding of oneself and the world. In the case of the tongue, the transition from one language to another is fluid. With the eye, the differences stand out.
