8 April 2025 at 11:00 CEST on Youtube
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. After the 45-minute talk there will be a 15-minute Q&A.
The speackers are Lisa Schantl, MA BA BA, a PhD candidate in the field of English literary and cultural studies at the University of Graz and Vilnius University within the frame of the Arqus Alliance, where she concentrates on literary multilingualism in the anglosphere with a special focus on translingual poetry and Prof. Dr Christine Schwanecke, both Professor of English Literature and Culture and Head of the Centre for Cultural Studies, Graz.