Reading + Lecture
Exophony: Dictionary for Lovers
July 14, 2020, 7:30-8:30 pm (CEST)
with Xiaolu Guo, Anne Rademacher
Author and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo describes her own literary practice as writing in “broken English.” Her book A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers was published in 2007 and translated into 26 languages. Her 2014 novel I Am China has also been a worldwide success. The editor and translator Anne Rademacher translated both books into German. A central motif in Guo’s novels is the quest to overcome the boundaries between people, whether these are linguistic, cultural, or due to gender, class or political events. The multi- and interlinguistic language practice of the main characters plays an important role in the stories. Guo uses multilinguisticality as a fundamental stylistic device also at the artistic, formal level.
Exophony: Dictionary for Lovers begins with a reading by Guo from her novels A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers and I Am China. Anne Rademacher reads from the German translations.
The reading isfollowed by a lecture by Guo, which will take up central questions of her work: What obstacles and freedoms result from a shift from one linguistic sphere to another? How is language competence influenced by social, cultural and political power relations? What aesthetic and political possibilities—in everyday as well as in professional contexts—result through the processes of exchange and translation?
The evening will end with a Q&A. The audience can ask questions via Zoom chat and Facebook comments.
The event will be moderated by Madhusree Dutta, the artistic director of ADKDW.
The Zoom meeting room will open at 7:20pm (CEST). The Zoom link is available here. The event will be broadcast on our Facebook Account.
Language: English | German
Exophony: Mother Tongue Other Tongue
July 16, 2020, 5-6pm (CEST)
with Ranjit Hoskoté, Banafshe Hourmazdi
Poet, curator, translator and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskoté presents a selection of his poetry written in English. In his poems Hoskoté combines mythology, history and linguistic play with questions related to the Indian subcontinent. The actress Banafshe Hourmazdi will read the German translation from the volume Die Ankunft der Vögel (Hanser, 2006).
Afterwards Ranjit Hoskoté will speak about the concept of “mother tongue,” a concept that is set against all other learned languages as “foreign” languages (other tongues). Hoskoté critically questions the idea of a socially normative language, national affiliation and the politically forced standardization of languages. With a look to the current movement of immigrants he also takes a critical look at the potential for resistance in everyday language practices that are based on a multilingual register.
The evening concludes with a Q&A. The audience can ask questions via Zoom chat and Facebook comments.
The event will be moderated by Madhusree Dutta, the artistic director of ADKDW.
The Zoom meeting room will open at 4:50pm (CEST). The Zoom link is available here. The event will be broadcast on our Facebook Account.
Language: English | German
Exophony: Dictionary for Lovers and Exophony: Mother Tongue Other Tongue are a part of the Exophony: program, which explores the processes of writing, reading and listening, manipulations of and through language as well as interaction and communication. There is a particular focus on experiences of and with multilingualism, translation and translatability. Exophony: offers the opportunity to collectively rethink communication structures and language practices and to explore the diversity and simultaneity of a shared language landscape.
The program series Exophony: is funded by Kunststiftung NRW. The events Exophony: Dictionary for Lovers and Exophony: Mother Tongue Other Tongue are organized in cooperation with Literaturhaus Köln.
Akademie der Künste der Welt (Academy of the Arts of the World, ADKDW)
Press Contact: presse [at] adkdw.org
