Translingual minorities

This study juxtaposes articulations of memory, identity and translingual practices in two European national contexts.

Peripheral modernities

Firstly, it explores how Yugoslavia sought legitimisation via the languages of Slovenian and Croatian communities. Central to the study will be the linguistic and cultural identity of Italian minorities after Dalmatia’s incorporation into Yugoslavia, Italian-Slovenian translators in Brussels and Trieste exploring received national and identitarian discourses, and ambilingual post-Yugoslav authors negotiating collective memory through translation and literature. Partners in the project will be Ravel Kodric and Mojca Sauperl (independent EU translators), Devan Jogodic (SLORI), Darja Pavlic (University of Maribor) and Marko Juvan (Comparative Literature, University of Ljubljana).

Minor/minority literatures and translingual writing

Secondly, the project will apply a literary lens to the dynamics of assimilation and dissimilation and the practices of minority/minor literary writing among German-Jewish and Turkish authors in Germany – and, in a second step, across Europe. The project is concerned with communities and literary writing: with literatures that represent communities (minority communities) and literatures that break up and question the understanding of clearly defined communities and national canons (‘minor literatures’ (Deleuze)).

Research team

Godela Weiss-Sussex (IMLR, School of Advanced Study, University of London)

Katia Pizzi (IMLR, School of Advanced Study, University of London)

Margaret Littler (School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester)