"Forked Tongues": Languages of Estrangement in China Mieville's Embassytown

China Mieville's recent novel Embassytown (2011) places the properties of human and non-human language under science-fictional examination. Both a scholar and sf author, Mieville encodes an array of discourses concerning language into the story of humanity's encounter with an alien race known as the Ariekei. I first situate Embassytown within its larger generic lineage and then open up several avenues for reading the novel alongside the theories of language that it re-visions, including those of Walter Benjamin and Jacques Lacan. I conclude by bringing the narrative into conversation with critical discussions of the role of language in intra- and interspecies contact zones advanced by thinkers such as Mary Louise Pratt and Donna Haraway.