Fouad Laroui – Writer in residence at the VUB (21-25 March 2019)

From March 21st to 25th Fouad Laroui is writer in residence at the VUB. For this occasion he will give lectures and seminars in different languages:

Thursday 21 March, 17.00-19.00 (room D.3.08): Discussion seminar / séminaire de discussion “Aesthethics and Ethics in Multicultural Literature Today” (hosted by Prof. dr Daniel Acke & Prof. dr. Elisabeth Bekers) ;

Friday 22 March 12.00-14.00 (Studentenrestaurant, STOA): Séminaire déjeuner avec Dr. ir Fouad Laroui “Réflexions postcoloniales sur la Francofonie” (organisatie Prof. dr. Daniel Acke & Prof. dr. Sabine Hillen for La Semaine de la Francophonie) ;

Friday 22 March 18.30-21.00 (U-Residence, groene zaal): Alumni Drink en Literaire Avond met Fouad Laroui rond zijn laatste roman L’insoumise de la Porte de Flandre (2017)

Monday 25 March 13.00-15.00 (Promotiezaal D.2.01): Gesprek tussen Jean Paul Van Bendegem en Fouad Laroui over diens recent boek Dieu, les mathématiques et la folie (Robert Laffont, 2018)

Complete programme: Programma F. Laroui 21-25 maart

Polyglots and Polysystems? Researching multilingualism in contemporary Latin American and Latino literature and film

Location: KU Leuven, Faculty of Arts, Campus Antwerp

Date : 15-03-2019

Multilingual writing has been a common practice since Antiquity, but has only become a popular research topic among critics in recent years. Kellman, who prefers the term translingualism, states that “the creation of a new voice means the invention of a new self” (2014). Many writers as well as film directors draw on their daily use of more than one language as a creative resource, but, as Yildiz points out in her authoritative essay Beyond the Mother Tongue, The Postmonolingual Condition, multilingualism is still haunted by the ideal of one true mother tongue (Yildiz 2012). Moreover, there is the material impossibility of a radically plurilingual literature because big publishing houses are not interested in it (Lennon 2010).

In the one-day conference, Polyglots and Polysystems, it is our aim to analyze multilingualism in literature and film from different perspectives through which both the product and the process can be approached. Codde, for instance, reminds us that, although Polysystem Theory seems to have lost its appeal for students and researchers of comparative literature, Even-Zohar’s interpretative model still offers a “framework for a wide-ranging and still topical study of a variety of cultural phenomena” (Codde 2003). The conference will bring together insights and methodologies from literary studies, film studies and translation studies, and confront these with new perspectives in the field. We also welcome case studies of contemporary literary works and films from 2000 until now. The main focus will be on texts and films in English and/or Spanish.

Organizing Institutions: KU Leuven, Research Group VICT (“Translation and Intercultural Transfer”) and Ghent University, Research Group CLIV (“Literature in Translation”)

Conference programmePolyglots and Polysystems