When “two tongues touch”: Literature and language across cultures
Christine Schwanecke and Lisa Schantl are excited to announce their online presentation on Tuesday, April 8 at 11 am. The presentation is part of the webinar series “9 months, 9 univeristies” by Arqus Alliance which will be livestreamed on YouTube.
The presenters will be discussing translingual poetry as a unique literary art form that bridges cultures, explores linguistic transformations, and fosters transcultural understanding.
Marked by globalization, migration and digital communication, the 21st century is without question an era of intensified exchange between cultures and social groups. Yet, recent political and corporate developments aim at limiting the general public’s access to the diversity and plurality that this era has to offer. In times of an increased valorization of nationalism, literature represents an invaluable counterpoint in that it effectively showcases the benefits of geographical and intellectual border crossings, via both its content and its rhetoric.
Translingual writers (Kellman 2000) who compose literary works (also) in their second language(s) provide us with an especially immediate point of access to the idea of transculturalism. With a heightened sense for the liminal zones between geographies, languages, and cultures, the works of such translingual authors cater to our understanding of transcultural experiences and nuances.
This talk will provide an introduction to an underexamined artform under said scope, translingual poetry, in English as the poet’s second language. On the example of this specimen of cross-language writing, linguistic de- and transformations and innovations will be shown as rich points of connection and disconnection. A further focus on the cultural dimension will demonstrate how transcultural knowledge and intercultural understanding are effectively (re-)constructed through second-language poetics.