Congress World Languages and World Literatures
FILLM (Fédération Internationale des Langues et Littératures Modernes / International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures)
Halden – Norway Østfold University College. 5-8 October 2011
In our present age of globalization some languages thrive to the point of spanning the globe as the contemporary lingua francas of diplomacy, science, and trade. This has most obviously been the case with English over the last 50 years. In an earlier age a similar role was fulfilled by French, and, for science, German. Other languages have played or still play similar roles within geographically more limited, but still very large, areas. Such is most conspicuously the case with Latin in pre-modern Europe, and with Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian in the respective former colonial empires. But it also applies to Chinese and Malay in South East Asia, Turkic in parts of Central Asia, and Arabic and Persian in the Arabian peninsula, much of North Africa, and Persia, Afghanistan and India respectively. Some of these seem to be on the rise again, particularly Chinese, Spanish and Turkic, albeit for different reasons.
Yet, linguists tell us, other languages are dying out on an almost daily basis. As with languages so with literatures. Some literatures have an almost universal dissemination, others are very much restricted to their local communities, whether these be national, regional, or even sub-regional. For writers it makes a huge difference whether they write, or are early and widely translated into, a major language, and especially again in our present age, English, or not. Writers in some languages achieve almost universal recognition, regardless of the perceived or “real” quality of their writing, while other writers, using a “minor’ language, may never receive any recognition beyond their immediate linguistic environment. Some literatures in toto remain ‘invisible’ to the world, whereas from others every work can be accessed, downloaded, or purchased almost anywhere on the globe. . Concurrently, we witness enormous changes in language and literature teaching and research across the globe. Some languages are taught everywhere, and increasingly so. Others disappear from curricula where even a few years ago they held pride of place. The same thing applies to literature. Some become world languages and world literatures, others literally seem to fall off the face of the world. In the world’s various macro-regions we see sometimes very different, yet decisive shifts, in the number and kind of languages and literatures taught and researched, and we often also see decisive shifts between language and literature teaching and research. It is this complex of practices and changes therein, and the various rationales and reasons, the theoretical and practical choices underlying them, that will be the subject of our Conference.
Paper proposals are invited under the following sub-headings:
– English as a World Language – Historical World Languages – Emergent World Languages – “Minor” Languages: Their Role and Status – The Current Status of Academic Language Teaching Around the World – The Current Status of Academic Research in Language and Linguistics Around the World – Translation: Its Practice, Theory, and Role in Language and Literature Studies – World Literature Today/Tomorrow – “Major” and “Minor” Literatures – The Current Status of the Academic Teaching of Literature Around the World – The Current Status of Academic Research in Literature Around the World – Language, Literature, and the Humanities .
Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Prof. Sylvie André (University of French Polynesia) Prof. Östen Dahl (Stockholm University) Prof. David Damrosch (Harvard University) Dr. Nicholas Ostler (Chairman of the Society for Endangered Languages and author of Empires of the Word) Dr. Adama Samassékou, President of CIPSH (UNESCO), Former Executive Secretary of the African Union African Academy of Languages (AU-ACALAN), President of MAAYA – the World Network for Linguistic Diversity, Former Minister of Education of Mali Prof. Baisheng Zhao (Peking University) .
Organizers: Prof. Theo D’Haen (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), President, Fédération Internationale des Langues et Littératures Modernes Prof. Stein Haugom Olsen (Østfold University College), Dean, Faculty of Business, Languages, and Social Sciences .
Paper proposals (title and an abstract of not more than 300 words) should be sent to: sho@hiof.no
Deadline: 1 April 2011.
Website FILLM: http://www.fillm.ulg.ac.be/
Please also consult the conference website! http://www2.sf.hiof.no/index.php?ID=19257
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