Maps, Texts and Bodies: connecting translation and migration in today’s Europe
Dr Loredano Polezzi
Date: 19 February 2013
Time: 17:00
Location: 2.18, 65-68 Park Place
Dr Loredano Polezzi (University of Warwick)
In this paper, I intend to examine the way in which polylingual practices such as translation and self-translation relate to models of Europe and of European hierarchies, arguing that linguistic and geographical mobility can provide an alternative model to the still dominant myth of the continent as a cluster of homogeneous communities characterised by the overlapping of recognizable (and containable) national identities, languages and cultures. If we reverse the balance and take mobility as a model rather than an exception, then practices of translation and their connection to migration (in Europe and beyond) have to be understood not as a neutral tool or a conciliatory gesture aiming to facilitate communication and mutual understanding, but as a self-conscious, politically and ethically aware practice, and also as a crucial location where issues of biopolitical control are played out.
This event has been organised by our Languages, Cultures and Identities Research Unit.