Worlds collide connections/divisions/dialogues between cultures

1 st Postgraduate International Conference CLASH Worlds collide connections/divisions/dialogues between cultures Book of Abstracts

List of Speakers Banerjee, Sutanyka (University of Malaga) Berger, Maike (University of Giessen) Buba-Braun, Aleksandra (Uniwersytet Wrocławski) Buchholtz, Mirosława (Uniwersytet im. M. Kopernika) Burzyńska, Katarzyna (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Canpolat, Seda (Kingston University) Cauwer, Stijn de (University of Leuven) Chudzińska-Parkosadze, Anna (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Dambek, Małgorzata (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Dhawan, Charulika (Delhi University) Diez Cobo, Rosa Maria (Universidad de Leon) Dundar, Leyla Burcu (Baskent University, Ankara) Duńko, Marta (Uniwersytet Łódzki) Frątczak, Marta (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Gnyusova, Irina (Tomsk State University) Grafl, Florian (University of Giessen) Happ, Dorit (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography) Jarząb, Joanna (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Jaworski, Mateusz (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Kebsi, Jyhene (University of Montreal) Kołodziej, Przemysław (Uniwersytet Gdański) Komarnicka, Olena (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Kortus, Nadzieja (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Kuścielek, Izabela (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Kuzentsova, Eugenia (Deusto University, Spain) Maćków, Weronika (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) 2

Mamet-Michalkiewicz, Marta (Uniwersytet Śląski) Mansour Hasabelnaby, Magda (Ain Shams University) Mańkowska, Anna (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Mazurek, Marta (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Nowakowska, Jana (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Paulus, Jędrzej Melchior (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Piwowarska, Agnieszka (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Rapp, Karolina (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Rauscher, Judith (Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg) Rebronja, Nadija (State University of Novi Pazar) Schreiber, Urlich Seligardi, Beatrice (University of Bergamo) Shier, Joe (Independent scholar) Shvanyukova, Polina (University of Bergamo) Skrzypska, Nina (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Slobodian, Elena (Bashkir State University) Stanecka, Agnieszka (Uniwersytet Jana Kochanowskiego) Stryjakowska, Anna (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Studzińska, Joanna (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Sukiennicka, Marta (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Szałagiewicz, Marek (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) Tasheva-Petrova, Milena (UACEG, Sofia) Tcherpokova, Slava (New Bulgarian University) Timofeev, Dimitriy (Charles University, Prague) Turkowska, Justyna Aniceta (University of Giessen) Wołosz, Anna (Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza) 3

Plenary Speaker Professor Mirosława Buchholtz (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Postcolonial Studies: Tricks, Treats, and Trade This lecture rests on the assumption that postcolonial theories are in constant need of interrogating because of their origin in real political struggle and because of their current significance for pedagogy. Like all politically involved studies, postcolonial theories are in danger of degenerating into an instrument of oppression when one voice begins to dominate and decree what is right or wrong. The plurality of views and voices in postcolonial studies is for this reason a welcome preventive measure. My questioning of postcolonial theories consists in viewing them in the light of the tradition of trick-or-treating and in the light of the precept which juxtaposes tricks and trade. My assumption is that postcolonial studies abound in both tricks and treats. I discuss a selection of both in my lecture, referring in particular to the works of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong o and Yinka Shonibare. The precept of learning the trade acquires in this context a new meaning. 4

Room: C1 Worlds collide connections/divisions/dialogues between cultures Session 1: Culture and Language (session in English) Maike Berger (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen) e-mail: maike.berger@anglistik.uni-giessen.de Becoming Too American - Cultural Clashes, Transcultural Phenomena and their Potential for Teaching English as a Foreign Language In An Na s award winning young adult novel A Step from Heaven, cultural clashes and transcultural phenomena play a central role as the young protagonist moves from Korea to the United States and she and her family have to face various problems when adjusting to the new culture without giving up the old. Therefore, the novel serves as an example of how these phenomena are presented in literary texts written for teenagers. The central thesis of the paper is that it is important for the identity formation of young adults to think about their own transcultural identities and how they place themselves in a transcultural world. With the help of appropriate literary texts, these processes can be triggered if the texts are chosen carefully and the tasks that go along with these texts are interesting and motivating. Therefore, the last part of the paper will present suggestions of how An Na s novel can be used in the classroom in order to foster processes of transcultural learning. Dimitriy Timofeev (Charles University, Prague) e-mail: dm.timofeyev@gmail.com The Language Policy of Joseph II in the Czech Lands: Germanisation/Centralisation? The years of reign of Joseph II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Hungary, Bohemia, Galicia and Lodomeria, - 1780-1790, - are known especially in the Czech lands--as the peak years of the Enlightened absolutism of the Habsburg monarchy. A significant feature of Joseph s policy was the effort to enstrong the state officialdom that could rely on the population. Among other laws that strengthened the bureaucratic apparatus and unified the educational system Josef published a series of decrees concerning language and education: the decree 12. 7. 1784 established German as the only official language in the universities of the Monarchy, the decree 22. 2. 1786 made the knowledge of German mandatory in order to enter a gymnasium, the decree 27. 3. 1788 established German as the common administrative language etc.) During the 19th and in the 20th century these facts have been commonly defined by historians as the policy of germanisation. The leading actors of the Czech 5

national revival in the 1820s (J. Jungmann, P. J. Ńafařík etc) complained about the dominant influence of German in the Czech lands. In the mid-19th century, especially after the1848 revolutions, many young patriotic publicists (J. V. Frič, J. Malý etc) labeled Joseph s language decrees as aggressive and oppressive. This concept of the Joseph s germanisation has not only become a cliché in political essays, especially (and unsurprisingly) those written after the World Wars, but also in historical textbooks and historical monographs (e.g. Dějiny Československa 1648-1918, Praha, 1990, ČAPKA F. Dějiny zemí Koruny české v datech, Praha, 2010). In my paper I will analyze the laws of Joseph II concerning the language problematics in different areas of social life in the Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) and I will try to determine to what extent these decrees were received by the population of the Czech lands. Dorit Happ, Helga Zichner (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography) e-mail: d_happ@ifl-leipzig.de Identification processes within the European Neighbourhood Policy emerging interface between the EU and its Eastern neighbours? In order to promote stability, prosperity and democracy in its immediate neighbourhood the European Union (EU) initialised the European Neighbourhood Policy. One concrete instrument of this policy - the Eastern Partnership launched in 2009 - includes a wide variety of extra-territorial measures in different policy fields, like migration, education and technical support. The EU's intentions are several: to position and bind its neighbours closer to its own policies thereby trying to protect inner security. At the same time the EU pursue to spread certain values, which are presented as belonging to a European identity. Besides a conception of collective identity by boundedness and homogeneity, in a constructivist interpretation identity appears as multiple, unstable, fragmented etc. Whereas the first concept draws an exaggerated sharp and constant image of identity, the latter appears as such an elastic term, which doesn't support analytical work. To overcome this dilemma, our research is based on an alternative processual term identification, which focuses on actors who are offering and producing identities. Against this theoretical background, the EU can be considered as an external agent, who tries to influence the cultural identities of its neighbours by certain measures. As our research is mainly based on ethnographic fieldwork in Belarus and Moldova, we intend to contrast the local East European perspectives and the EU s approach. Based on participatory observation and qualitative interviews with locals, who are either implementing or addressed by EU funded projects different aspects of 6

identification will be highlighted: In which extent do these programs link the involved subjects to the EU s policy? Do these projects foster in- or exclusion of the eastern neighbours? How do the local actors deal with their position at the interface between EU and their home countries? Are extra-territorial measures one way of defining (EU-)Europe against a non-european other? 7

Room: C3 Worlds collide connections/divisions/dialogues between cultures Session 1: Comparative Studies (session in Polish) Marta Duńko (Lodz University) e-mail: marta.dunko@gmail.com Iwona, siostra Bartleby ego Bunt jednostki wobec zasad rządzących społeczeństwem to jeden z najważniejszych motywów literatury zarówno amerykańskiej, jak i polskiej. Herman Melville w Kopiście Bartlebym zaproponował jednak więcej niż sprzeciw, a mianowicie bierny opór, który nie pociąga za sobą odpowiedzi; negację, która, jak pisał Vila-Matas w książce Bartleby i spółka, stała się ścieżką najbardziej niepokojącej i pociągającej tendencji we współczesnej literaturze. O opowiadaniu Melville a warto mówić nie tylko dlatego, że stanowi literackie i filozoficzne wyzwanie. Kopista Bartleby ma wartość ponadczasową; dotyka kwestii elementarnych i odsłania tragizm każdej relacji społecznej (Bartleby nie zna przecież alternatywy). Echa Bartleby ego odnajdujemy w jednym z najważniejszych utworów literatury polskiej Iwonie, księżniczce Burgunda Gombrowicza, o którym trzeba mówić w podobnych kategoriach. W 2009 roku pojawił się w Polsce nowy przekład utworu Melville a oraz antologię opowiadań Wolałbym nie, będącą odpowiedzią polskich pisarzy na propozycję autora Werandy. Dowodzi to, że Bartleby nadal nurtuje polskich czytelników (podobnie jak często wystawiana Iwona). Do tej pory nie powstało jednak studium porównawcze poświęcone wspomnianym tekstom. Akcja obu utworów tylko pozornie rozgrywa się w odmiennych realiach. W rzeczywistości dwór u Gombrowicza nie odbiega tak bardzo od uporządkowanego świata kancelarii prawniczej Melville a. W obu utworach jednostka staje się ofiarą opresyjnej władzy (Bartleby jest pracownikiem, Iwona poddaną, w gruncie rzeczy idzie jednak o to samo o wolność niemożliwą w układzie społecznym opartym na hierarchii), systemów kontroli (Książę Filip najchętniej przywiązałby Iwonę do krzesła; prawnik urządza stanowisko pracy Bartleby ego tak, aby cały czas mieć go w zasięgu wzroku) i oczekiwań (Iwona ma być ładna; Bartleby pracować). Istotny jest również motyw Doppelgängera (Iwona staje się odbiciem skrywanych pragnień Królowej oraz Księcia Filipa; Bartleby niezrealizowaną stroną osobowości prawnika). Oba utwory wprawiają czytelnika w osłupienie za sprawą pytania po co?, na które trudno odpowiedzieć. Podważają również porządek społeczny z pełną świadomością, że jesteśmy na niego skazani. 8

Celem artykułu jest analiza porównawcza utworów Melville a i Gombrowicza, skupiająca się na sylwetkach obojga bohaterów kopisty Bartleby ego oraz Iwony. Interpretacja będzie zawierać analizę przyczyn oraz znaczenia postaw tych postaci, form opresji, którym są poddawane (a także ich przyczyn i konsekwencji dla bohaterów) oraz reakcji na nie buntu lub jego braku. Część artykułu zostanie również poświęcona analizie (nielicznych, co bardzo istotne) wypowiedzi bohaterów. Anna Chudzińska-Parkosadze (Adam Mickiewicz University) e-mail: parkosadze@interia.pl Problemy estetyki i etyki w dziele literackim na przykładzie powieści M. Bułhakova Mistrz i Małogorzata i O. Wilde'a Portret Doriana Gray'a. Artykuł traktuje o dwóch powieściach, będących arcydziełymi literatury światowej - "Mistrzu i Małgorzacie" Michaiła Bułhakowa i "Portrecie Doriana Graya" Oscara Wilde'a. Autor wykorzystując metodologię komapartystyczną poszukuje "miejsc wspólnych" oraz różnic w ujęciu zagadnień etycznych i estetycznych w powyższych utworach. W "Portrecie Doriana Graya" postulaty estetyczne, wyrażone w paradoksach wygłaszynych przez Lorda Henry'ego, są rewidowane przez linie fabularne przedstawionych postaci - Doriana Graya, Basila Hallward'a oraz samego Lorda Wottona. W "Mistrzu i Małgorzacie", z kolei, założenia estetyczne wyrażone są przede wszystkim w stylistyce utworu. Niemniej jednak, w obu utworach sfera estetyczna jest podporządkowana sferze etycznej, która wychodzi za ramy sformułowanych zasad moralności i reprezenzuje zagadnienia natury ontycznej. W podsumowaniu autor porównuje ujęcie koncepcji zła, jako centralnego pojęcia w obu powieściach. Elena Slobodian (Bashkir State University) e-mail: elena.slobodian@gmail.com "Pan Tadeusz" Adama Mickiewicza i "Eugeniusz Oniegin" Aleksandra Puszkina jako zarys kultury dwóch narodów. "Pan Tadeusz" Adama Mickiewicza i "Eugeniusz Oniegin" Aleksandra Puszkina stanowią ważne dla kultur polskiej i rosyjskiej teksty, które zawierają w sobie kody kulturowe obu narodów (w pojmowaniu Clotaire'a Rapaille'a). Dzieła te są obowiązkową lekturą, kształcącą kolejne już generacje Polaków i Rosjan. Z powyższego względu ciekawym wydaje się porównanie obu poematów z punktu widzenia kulturoznawczego, czego nie dokonano dotąd w literaturze naukowej. 9

Krytycy (M. Rylski, W. Beliński) zarówno "Pana Tadeusza" jak i "Eugeniusza Oniegina" nazywają "encyklopedią życia". W obu poematach przedstawiona jest codzienność szlachty polskiej i rosyjskiej XIX wieku. Warto zauważyć, że w obu dziełach skrupulatnie opisywane są podobne realia. Niektóre z nich stanowią ważną część życia codziennego każdego człowieka (jedzenie, odzież, meble i wyposażenie domu) i nie sposób je pominąć; natomiast inne są charakterystyczne dla opisywanej w obu poematach części społeczeństwa (szlachty polskiej i rosyjskiej) i jej kultury narodowej (łowy, pojedynek, "jarmark panien"). Polska i rosyjska kultura różnią się, każda ma charakterystyczne osobliwości, ale przyglądając się uważnie obu "encyklopediom" i kodom kulturowym, które one zawierają, odnajdziemy jednak dużo wspólnych cech (podobne podejście do sposobu ubierania się, podobne wyposażenie domu i sposób zarządzania majątkiem; w obu poematach występują podobni bohaterowie, np Zosię możemy porównać z Tatianą i Olgą, Hrabiego z Leńskim, Sędzię z Dymitrem Larinym, wiele cech wspólnych mają też Tadeusz i Oniegin). Stąd można wywnioskować, iż opisywane dwie tradycje kulturowe podobne są do dwóch gałęzi jednego drzewa, mają wspólne korzenie, poddawane są podobnym wpływom kultur obcych i mają wspólne kierunki rozwoju. Badanie, które pragnę zaprezentować, ma nie tylko wartość naukową, ale również empiryczną: może pomagać obu narodom we wzajemnym porozumiewaniu się, uświadomieniu wspólnych korzeni, budowaniu zarówno pozytywnego obrazu polaka w społeczeństwie rosyjskim jak i pozytywnego obrazu Rosjanina w społeczeństwie polskim. 10

Room: C1 Worlds collide connections/divisions/dialogues between cultures Session 2: Cultural Clashes (session in English) Florian Grafl (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen) e-mail: florian.grafl@geschichte.uni-giessen.de The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Nationalism, Central State and Xenophobia in Contemporary Catalonia While Spain keeps severely suffering from the present economic crisis, in Catalonia, the most powerful industrial region of the Iberian Peninsula, the growing frustration with the government in Madrid more and more is steered into two channels: the rise of Catalan nationalism and the re-emergence of a hostile attitude towards foreigners. The power of the national movement was impressively demonstrated two weeks ago when on 11th September, the most important Catalan holiday, more than one million people gathered in Barcelona and demonstrated for the autonomy for what they consider their nation. The other mass phenomena, as it seems, is a new kind of xenophobia against immigrants from Africa and Asia, popularized by the right-wing parties, which in the last elections had gained significantly in power. Both of these phenomena can be traced back more than one century. Catalanism, as many modern nationalisms, became popular for the first time in the second half of the 19th century and grew similar as today when the Spanish Central State proved unable to deal with the social and economical problems in the first decades of the 20th century. Almost at the same time, Barcelona for the first time was flooded with huge waves of immigrants in search for work. Right from the beginning, they were made responsible for the problems the city had to face at that time: the shortage of houses and jobs as well as the increase of violence. Therefore, rather with a historical than a cultural studies approach, the roots of these clashes of culture shall be explored in order to show how they developed to their actual appearance, while a special focus will be on the emergence of typical narratives and stereotypes. Justyna Aniceta Turkowska (Herder Institut in Marburg / Justus-Liebig University of Giessen) e-mail: justynaturkowska@yahoo.de The Biopolitics of venereal diseases in the Province of Posen (1902-1918) 11

From mid-19 th century onwards the sexual transmitted diseases appeared as a folk s danger, folk s vice and a vital intimidation to national body. We need to rescue the youth otherwise we will be everlasting caught in the blue national dreaming that can be fulfilled only by a healthy shoulder with muscles which are not chewed by mercantilism appealed one of the leading polish hygienist by establishing the polish association against venereal diseases in Posen, in the centre of the multicultural German-Polish-Jewish Prussian Province of Posen that apart its role as a sanitary cordon of German Empire was a place of negotiation of hygienic concepts and its cultural-national contextualisation. Accordingly Polish and German population living next door to one another established two equal associations and debates about venereal diseases that were constituted alongside national (ethnical) and political argumentation. The same medical facts and regulation were differently reframing and meant to shape different cultural understanding and coding of venereal diseases and theirs causes. The founding of the German affiliated society meant an expansion of the German activities over the areas of the eastern province and an extension of the sphere of influence over the eastern part of the empire. The foundation of the polish association in contrast branded the beginning of the polish public hygienic movement in the region as well as the beginning of the first polish concepts about hygienic embodying of a national movement and national cultures of knowledge. Speaking about regulation and healing reflected in fact the greatest issues of the age equality, freedom, moral as well as gender, ethnicity and nation. This paper, focusing on multicultural boarder Prussia Province of Posen in the latest 1880s till 1918, is designed to exemplify from historical perspective the cultural contextualisation and shaping of ethnical/national connotations of venereal diseases, viewing them as a projection screen for conceptualisation of national danger concepts, as a reflection of social hierarchization and sexual education and as a biopolitical tool for disciplining each national faction. Anna Mańkowska (Adam Mickiewicz University) e-mail: anna.mankowska@amu.edu.pl Traditional value system and life style of modern Norwegians Norwegians are extremely interesting example of modern society. Searching for national identity has started after 1905 and is still alive nowadays. It has been even stronger at 90s when the biggest immigration started and Sami people wanted to have extra rights and privileges. Most of the literature about norwegianess come from 90s. In the context of Ander s Brevik terrorist attack at Utoya and his lawsuit, there are many political speeches and 12

articles about norwegianess and national identity. Also citizens speak more about being Norwegian in a daily life. The main goal of my presentation is to get closer and present norwegian value system, and main values as: collectivism and equality, being close to nature also generous and caring. During my presentation I will try to show the reason, why those values were important for Norwegians and where does it come from. I will give a reason why society is not getting closer to the Norwegian tradition. Also I will show what is important nowadays for Norwegians and what is typical and unchanging for Norway in general. During my presentation I will present the data collected for my PhD project. 13

Room: C3 Worlds collide connections/divisions/dialogues between cultures Session 2: Literary Linguistics (session in Polish) Jana Nowakowska (Adam Mickiewicz University) e-mail: nojanka@interia.pl Specyfika pisma kobiecego Marii Arbatowej, na materiale opowieści Siedmiolatka poszukiwań Koncepcja krytyki feministycznej zawarta w ecriture feminine, posłużyła podstawą teoretyczną do przeprowadzenia badań językoznawczych oraz literaturoznawczych na materiale opowieści Siedmiolatka poszukiwań rosyjskiej pisarki i dziennikarki Marii Arbatowej. Jako, że Arbatowa jest przede wszystkim znana ze swej działalności feministycznej, jej tekst przedstawia swego rodzaju manifestację owej ideologii. Z utworu pisarki wyłania się opozycja do patriarchalnej leksyki, wolnej od tradycyjnych norm opowiadania. Styl pisma Arbatowej formuje się w oparciu o doświadczenie publicystyczne i polityczne. Ponadto, w tekście odnaleźć można psychologizmy, anglicyzmy oraz leksykę podwórkową. W analizowanej opowieści, występują m.in. takie cechy ecriture feminine jak: autoekspresja, chaotyczność, wieloznaczność, brak linearności, obecność symultanicznych i heteromorficznych form w narracji. Siedmiolatka poszukiwań to przykład utworu mocno zakorzenionego w ideologii feministycznej. Wskazuje na to nie tylko styl pisma kobiecego, ale również wybór tematyki, konstrukcja bohaterów oraz detale świata przedstawionego. Marta Mazurek e-mail: mmazurek@amu.edu.pl Literatura chuligańska i zjawisko Wang Shuo Celem mojego referatu będzie próba zdefiniowania nowego gatunku w literaturze chińskiej, jakim jest tzw. literatura chuligańska. Autorem, dla którego owo pojęcie ukuto, jest Wang Shuo, postać charakterystyczna we współczesnej literaturze chińskiej, jednocześnie zaś wykraczająca poza kręgi stricte literackie. Wang jest bowiem także twórcą filmowym i aktywnym komentatorem życia politycznego kraju. W swoim wystąpieniu chciałabym zastanowić się, jakie miejsce zajmuje Wang Shuo we współczesnej literaturze Państwa Środka i czy jego fenomen jest jedynie przejawem chwilowego zainteresowania, czy może oznaką tworzenia się nowego typu kultury miejskiej. Wang Shuo jest jednym z najbardziej znanych i jednocześnie najbardziej kontrowersyjnych twórców współczesnej literatury chińskiej. Jest autorem kilkunastu 14

powieści i zbiorów opowiadań, a wiele z nich zostało również zaadaptowanych na dzieła filmowe. Od lat 80. Wang zajmuje się literaturą miejską, osadzając akcje swoich powieści w Pekinie, pokazując czytelnikowi miejską przestrzeń publiczną i prywatną ze swojej, często zaskakującej, perspektywy, badając życie i zwyczaje mieszkańców miasta oraz kreując pewnego rodzaju miejską antykulturę. Język powieści Wang Shuo, chętnie czerpiący z języka ulicy, slangu pekińskiego oraz gier językowych, stał się jednym ze znaków rozpoznawczych autora. Bohaterami powieści Wanga są pekińscy chuligani, młodzi chłopcy, którzy często zamiast uczciwej pracy, zajmują się włóczeniem całymi dniami po ulicach Pekinu, wdawaniem się w potyczki nie tylko słowne ze swoimi rywalami, czasami również drobną przestępczością. Popularność tych postaci, a także charakterystyczny styl pisarza sprawiły, że jego twórczość zaczęto nazywać literaturą chuligańską, tworząc w ten sposób nowy, przypisany jednemu twórcy gatunek literacki. Wang Shuo znany jest nie tylko ze swojej twórczości literackiej, ale również wypowiedzi pozaliterackich, w których często krytycznie odnosi się do uznanych twórców z początku wieku, jak i jemu współczesnych. Dziś autor prowadzi również internetowego bloga, na którym komentuje i często ostro krytykuje ostatnie wydarzenia społeczne i polityczne w Chinach. Ze względu na barwność samej postaci, popularność jego powieści i bohaterów, a także stworzenie nowego gatunku w literaturze, badacze mówią o zjawisku Wang Shuo jako nowym fenomenie w literaturze chińskiej. Joanna Studzińska (Adam Mickiewicz University) e-mail: joanna-studzinska@wp.pl Frazeologizmy Wisławy Szymborskiej w tłumaczeniach na hiszpański Frazeologia to część języka głęboko zakorzeniona w kulturze. W językach europejskich istnieją ekwiwalentne frazeologizmy (euroversals), nawet w językach niespokrewnionych ze sobą. Z drugiej strony w każdym języku istnieje zestaw specyficzny dla danej kultury. Frazeologia to tworzywo poezji, w szczególności poezji współczesnej. Poeci posługują się frazeologizmami nie tylko w sposób standardowy, ale również niestandardowy twórczo je przekształcając. Wśród wielu trudności, jakie niesie ze sobą tłumaczenie poezji, jest tłumaczenie przekształconych frazeologizmów. Trudności te wynikają z braku odpowiedników pod względem znaczenia figuratywnego i komponentu obrazowego, a także składni. Dodatkowo przekształcenia mogą opierać się na nieprzetłumaczalnej grze słów lub na udosłownieniu znaczenia przenośnego poprzez kontekst. Rozprawa doktorska, na której opiera się to wystąpienie konferencyjne, ma na celu zbadanie tłumaczeń wierszy Wisławy Szymborskiej na język hiszpański pod względem 15

potraktowania związków frazeologicznych. Polski i hiszpański zasób związków frazeologicznych zawiera wiele elementów wspólnych (co jednak nie jest zawsze wykorzystane przez tłumaczy), ale w wielu przypadkach brak jest odpowiednika w języku docelowym. Tłumacze używają różnorodnych strategii: przekładają frazeologizm dosłownie, zastępują wyrażenie wielowyrazowe jednym słowem lub luźnym połączeniem wyrazów. Stosują też frazeologizmy, których ekwiwalencja jest częściowa, np. to samo jest znaczenie figuratywne, a odmienny komponent obrazowy, czasami zgadza się tylko jeden element pola semantycznego komponentu obrazowego. Zdarzają się i takie przypadki, w których można podejrzewać brak zrozumienia przez tłumaczy tekstu oryginału. Twórczość Wisławy Szymborskiej jest uniwersalna filozoficznie, ale trudna do tłumaczenia ze względu na mistrzostwo językowe. Po hiszpańsku traci wiele ze swej finezji. 16

Session 3: Literature and Society (session in English) Room: C1 Seda Canpolat (Kingston University) e-mail: seda.canpolat@gmx.de Purity is Half the Faith: The Islamic Purity Discourse in Leila Aboulela s The Translator and Minaret Homi K. Bhabha s hybridity discourse has become the centrepiece of postcolonial studies. As a discourse that set out to challenge Western cultural hegemony, it has come to overshadow other subaltern discourses. In the migrant scenario, where hybridity is invoked as a discursive model of identity formation, it is often overlooked that migrants did not exist in a discursive vacuum before Bhabha established the discourse on hybridity. The proposed paper aims to demonstrate that hybridity is by no means an uncontested concept in migrant identity formation. By juxtaposing the discourse on hybridity with Islam s very own purity discourse, the paper will illustrate the incompatibilities between the two distinct discourses and that of their core values purity and impurity. The notion of purity is central to the works of the Sudanese Muslim novelist Leila Aboulela. To exemplify the ways in which the Islamic purity discourse can be seen as an alternative to the hybridity discourse, the paper will draw on examples from two of Aboulela s novels, namely The Translator (1999) and Minaret (2005). Aboulela s portrayal of Muslim women offers a salient counterpoint to more widespread and numerous texts that suggest that Muslim women yearn to embrace a Western lifestyle. Her Sudanese protagonists in the British diaspora reject hybridity in favour of Islam s purity discourse, which derives from the Qur an. Stijn De Cauwer (University of Leuven) e-mail: stijndc@yahoo.com The search for a literary immunity in the writings of Kafka Abstract: Recently, several scholars have pointed out the increasing importance of immunity mechanisms in society. In the early twentieth century, the need for mechanisms to protect the integrity of a presumed inside (whether society, the nation or the self) from external threats or historical change was very widespread. It comes as no surprise that the prevailing immunity discourses are reflected in the literature of that time. However, Roberto Esposito has shown that immunity mechanisms have a dangerous tendency to become self- 17

destructive. In the literature of the early twentieth century, we can see that authors develop literary tactics to render the prevailing immunity discourses inoperative. In this paper, I will take the work of Kafka as an example of an author whose literary experiments were an attempt to problematize the assumptions of immunity discourses: a strictly seperated inside and outside along with assumptions about the person or the self. Being a legal expert, Kafka was well aware that the key problem to any form of law is the notion of the person. In times when the human being was redefined and divided according to outdated zoological models, Kafka's writings undermine simplistic assumptions about the person. In doing so, Kafka not only renders the problematic immunity discourses inoperative but he also goes further: as recent scholarship has shown, Kafka's writings can also be regarded as a form of immunity mechanism in itself. Using Kafka as an example, we can begin to understand what the possible feautures are of literature that could function as an immunity mechanism, capable of protecting against future challenges or destructive cultural and political discourses of division. I would like to show that the notion of immunity is a useful concept to explore different aspects of the relationship between literature, the self and society. Jyhene Kebsi (St Thomas University) e-mail: jyhene@live.fr The Collision between The North and the South: North African Literature s Portrayal of the ordeal of the Undocumented Migrant Laila Lalami s Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits tackles the issue of illegal immigration from North Africa to Europe. It features four individuals who try to sneak to Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar. The main incentive that has led them to embark on this hazardous adventure is the prospect of a better future for themselves and their families. The increasing border militarization and the immigration restrictions that criminalize and demonize thirdworld migrants have led them to cross the border illegally. In my view, the undocumented crossing represents a sign of a world that collides under the injustice emanating from the contradiction between free trade and restricted human movement. Accordingly, my paper will study the theme of unlawful immigration through the lens of globalization theory. I will maintain that the celebratory discourse that ties global politics to diversity, heterogeneity, multiculturalism and acculturation does not account for the entire reality of the new global economy. In so doing, I will critique the claim that globalization has brought about a beneficial transnational exchange of ideas and cultural forms, thus demonstrating how it has generated a clash between first and third-world countries. I will unveil the bleak facets of the neoliberal global economy by shedding light upon both the 18

dangers surrounding the trip. I will read the dismal fates of the illegal African immigrants as a sign of a collision between the North and the South. 19

Room C3 Worlds collide connections/divisions/dialogues between cultures Session 3: Culture and Body (session in English) Weronika Maćków (Adam Mickiewicz University) e-mail: weronika_mackow@poczta.fm Between the Body and the Machine Technological Discourse and Cyborg Identity in the Context of Women Presence in Cyberspace The clash of militaristic discourse which is inscribed in the figure of a cyborg with what is considered, within the structural frame of binarized oppositions, the biological, female body has long been present in the Western culture and its representations of femininity. However, the rise of cyber culture and new technologies resulted in the redefinition of power relations within the technological discourse itself. Technology and cyberspace have been perceived as unnatural if not hostile spaces for women which popular representations of monstrous female cyborgs prove. Such figures as the false Maria from Metropolis (1927) by F. Lang and the Borg Queen form Star Trek series prolong culturally widespread notion of the monster woman. Needless to say, these images are in stark contrast to the constructivist notion of a cyborg as defined by Donna Haraway and the focus of the short analysis of these representations is intended to display a certain continuity of the strategy which removes female body to the margins of the discourse. Drawing from Haraway s metaphor which emphasizes the permeability of boundaries between the artificial and the natural, the following paper intends to take a closer look at female presence in cyberspace with particular attention put on the geometries of difference and contradiction which characterize the position of women in the integrated circuit. With the synergy of gendered body and machine in mind, I would like to focus on two examples of women s activity in cyberspace: the classic radical group VNS MATRIX and Natalie Bookchin net art projects. As different as these examples may be, I believe that the fusion of the two spaces of experience the natural and the cybernetic one is what allows them to intercept the masculine discourse and shift meanings attached to it. Sutanuka Banerjee (University of Malaga) e-mail: sutanukabanerjee@yahoo.com Scientific Sexuality and Religion of Nature: Intertextualizing the Cross-Culture of Bodies in Colonial India and Interwar Spain Sexual science in colonial India is a discursive domain with intercultural intersection between east and west, intertwined in the dynamics of political ideology and personal health 20

which is further embedded in the traditional boundaries of religious doctrines that repress desires and dichotomies of the body. In the vernacular periodical Nara-Naree: the Only Bengali Journal on Health, Hygiene and Sex, intellectual interrogation and subversion of moral dilemma exhibited how sexual dialectics were dubiously poised in the bifurcation of nature and culture, tradition and modernity. On the other hand, Estudios, an eclectic magazine linked with anarchist movement in interwar Spain, scrupulously investigated the impact of religion and ethics on the natural urge of the body and analyzed the adverse effects of sustained detachment from nature under cultural codes and repressive taboos. The theme of intertextuality in the cultural convergence, contingence and divergence, as apparent in the scientific answers to the concurrent health problems in India and Spain, highlighted the contestation and dialogue in reconstructing the scientific and ideal sexual nature which was problematized by temporal and spatial biopolitics and therapeutic prescriptions where the body served as a strategic device and a topographical site. While colonial Bengal registered the conflict in the encounter between religion, science and naturism with its growing acquaintance with European transcultural tendencies, an imperative for a political purport was simultaneously invented to rejuvenate the healthy body in the face of imperial domination. Interwar Spain also resorted to medico-moral analysis of racial degeneracy to recognize the return to nature as a way of regeneration, and in both cases, physical property stood for racial, social, psychological and geopolitical stability. Power, knowledge and resistance were entangled in the dialogic process of emboldening the body and the mind which were rift by science and scripture in the debated terrain of local and global cultural hybridity. Nina Skrzypska (Adam Mickiewicz University) e-mail: ninaskrzypska@gmail.com Embodiment a fresh look at the body in humanities and social sciences In modern humanities and social sciences the body regains its voice. A body has assumed a lively presence on scientific scene. Cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, psychology, cognitive science, even computer science are all implicated in the move toward the body. The goal of this paper is to give of the main issues regarding the role of embodiment in sciences and discuss a number of diverse notions of embodiment. The widespread interest in the body may be accounted for by the contemporary centrality of the body in Western consumption social forms. The present cultural transformation of the body can be conceived not only in terms of consumption culture, but also in a social ambiguity in the boundaries of corporeality (Csordas, 2002). Intercommunicative and active nature of the body is connected with body s mediator 21

function between self and society. Sex, gender, social and economic classes are visible on bodily level making the human body a social body (Lorber, Moore, 2011). The important role plays also the contemporary historical moment in which people are undergoing fundamental changes in how are organized and experienced their bodies (Lakoff, Johnson, 1999). The new body that has begun to be identified can no longer be considered as a brute fact of nature, which is separated from the self. In the Western tradition this autonomous of the self was regarded as what makes people essentially human, distinguishing from all over animals. The evidence from cognitive science, that sensorimotor processes routinely influence and perhaps even constitute cognitive processes, shows that alienating the self and the body is wrong and disembodied model of the self is not actual any more (e.g. Laakso, 2011, Reimann, 2012, Rowlands, 2004). The body is not only the ground of the self and the identity; the body is an experiencing agent, what is reflected in popularity of psychological body self constructs (e.g. Anzieu, Buss, Krueger). The paper shows the early stage of development of a paradigm of embodiment which still faces formidable challenges especially to manage with multiple meanings of embodiment concept. 22

Room: C1 Worlds collide connections/divisions/dialogues between cultures Session 4: Space and the city Eugenia Kuznetsova (Deusto University) e-mail: pisem@kuznetsovoi.net Magic realism: transgressing boundaries through time and space Magic realism is a crossing-borders style that transgresses boundaries, whether the boundaries are ontological, political, geographical or generic. Writers working in magic realism genre are responding to each other across national and linguistic borders in ways that have influenced individual works and encouraged the recent development of magical realist subjects and strategies. (Faris, Zamora, 1995). Magic realism is a narrative style that consists of overlapping genres and styles: fantasy and realism. The reality and magic world clash in the literary works, creating new objectivity, the extended reality: supernatural, exuberant and carnivalesque world without any requirement of a rational, physical explanation for any unusual occurrence. Art historians tried to dissect the movement using different categories: geographical location, political affiliation, postcolonialism, social protest etc. But the fluidity of boundaries doesn t allow the investigators to frame magic realist works precisely (Guenther, 1995). In my paper I will demonstrate how, for example, Marquez`s Columbia, Will Self`s London, Rushdie`s Mumbai, Llosa`s Lima, Bulgakov`s Moscow in magic realist texts form the global city where reality and fantasy are overlapped and mixed. I will try to answer the question why magic realism became an intercultural phenomenon and how could it happen that writers from different cultures, different continents and different styles extend the reality of the worlds described in their texts, challenging the rational, predictable worldview and introducing new approach to perceiving the everyday life. Slava Tcherpokova (New Bulgarian University), Milena Tasheva-Petrova (UACEG, Sofia) e-mail: tasheva_far@uacg.bg Urban Space Reflecting and creating meanings This paper summarises the results of a hybrid study that looks into the interrelations between the changing cultural identity and public space in contemporary Bulgarian literature. Three filmed novels are featured - the TV serial Glass Home (2010) and the feature movies Tilt (2011) and Lora from morning till evening (2011). The protagonists are young people which 23

not only help the process of self-identification, but also can serve as a reliable testimony of the transformations the Bulgarian society is undergoing. The findings of the study are focused on the city as a medium that produces images and reinforces links, flows, reflections, desires and passion. Public space, architecture, literature and cinematography come into play to create a truly modern vision of human existence where ordinary people interact with the city, find their identity and meaning of life. The city is not a metaphor, it is a full-fledged character: sometimes gloomy, but most often glamorous - an escape from the dull insensitive past. The approach this paper adopts is strictly cross disciplinary comparative study of how the role of urban public space is seen in contemporary literature and the meaning and functions ascribed to urban space trough literature. Joe Shier (Independend Scholar) e-mail: joeshier@hotmail.com Jonathan Safran Foer s defence of the printed page Both the form and content of Jonathan Safran Foer s novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close have been subject to considerable debate. While Philippe Codde and David Paton admire Foer s use of unusual devices such as pictures, colour and variations in typesetting to address the unspeakable trauma of 9/11, other critics, such as Harry Siegel and John Updike consider the whole thing to be a cynical, self-indulgent gimmick. Comparisons have been made with earlier innovative novelists, such as James Joyce and Jack Kerouac, in order to establish Foer s place in literary history, but very little has been said regarding the implications of Foer s work for the future of the book. By focusing on historical attempts to destroy cities, Foer questions humankind s peculiar drive to destroy its most formidable creations. In this respect the book and the city are analogous. Through a close analysis of Foer s work and the body of critical material that has built up around it, along with various writings on the status of the book in light of recent (and not so recent) technological advancements, this paper will argue that Foer is attempting, through his experiments with the physical form of the novel and the book in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and his more recent work, Tree of Codes, to re-establish the paper book as an object of value and to fortify it against the encroachment of technologies which would see it relegated to the status of little more than an obsolete, inefficient vessel for information. Through Foer s work, the reader is reminded of ancient illuminated manuscripts, the visual, tactile experience of children s books and the subtle pleasure of turning a page. This paper will argue that this constitutes a powerful defence of the paper book against which the sterile e-reader experience cannot compete. 24

Session 4: Literary Hybridities (session in English) Room: C3 Leyla Burcu Dündar (Ankara University) e-mail: leyla@baskent.edu.tr Literary Outburst of the Subaltern: Cholera Street as a Medium of Expressing Cultural Hybridity Metin Kaçan (b.1961) is a contemporary writer, who turned the Turkish literary scene upside down with the boldness of his works. His debut novel entitled Cholera Street was published in 1990, which received remarkable attention. Witnessing the growth of a subculture scattered through slum quarters of Istanbul, the novel portrays Romanies together with all the ferocious yet alluring aspects of their lives. The setting of the novel is not explicit, but there exists a hint which points to Beyoğlu district by the reference given to Adam Mickiewicz, who once came to Constantinople of the Ottoman Empire in year 1855, and died there having contracted cholera. The plot of the novel revolves around a young man named Salih, whose tragic story coincides with the misfortune of the crime-ridden neighborhood he lives in. The course of the novel brings about the downfall of Salih, which is just the individual share of a broader tragedy; that is the fragmentation of the community with its multi-ethnic and multi-religious structure. Hybridity was initially theorized within the framework of post-colonial studies, but later it evolved into a broader term covering the multi-dimensional nature of cultural identity. In the last few decades, as multi-culturalism and globalization took off, intense cultural encounters witnessed in the contemporary metropolises became an issue worth scrutinizing. Along the same line, Kaçan s literary devotion emanates from a significant social phenomenon that Turkey has been experiencing lately: That is the immense internal migration within the country due to urbanization. As the reaction to hybridization often pendulates from justification to condemnation in an immoderate manner, Kaçan achieved to give voice to a subculture. In this paper, Cholera Street will be analyzed in terms of cultural hybridity depicted in the novel, as it is a text full of roughnecks, bullies, rogues, thieves, mafiosi, murderers, prostitutes, pimps, peddlers, junkies; in brief, it portrays the jungle within the metropolis. Kaçan not only writes the underground, but also introduces -perforce- the language of it. For him, Cholera Street is both an ideological and a linguistic revolt. As slang can be perceived as a hybrid form of language, there is no doubt that it also comprises the rejection of expressing a distinctive reality using the means of the dominant culture. 25

Agnieszka Stanecka (Jan Kochanowski University) e-mail: akocieba@interia.pl A stranger in a stranger land. Hybridity and mimicry in postcolonial novels The presentation will focus on issues of complexity and difference represented by postcolonial subjects in contemporary British society. The representatives of various ethnic minorities living in the land of an ex-colonizer are often rejected, misunderstood and they are claimed to be social chameleons. It is, however, not easy to answer the question why the subjects with blurred identity resort to mimicry. Is it the result of being rejected by the white society or is it the result of fascination with the inhabited area and its culture? A difficult position of, so called, in-betweeners evokes numerous disorders: depression, inferiority complex, and finally madness. Oriental bodies do not allow the subjects to forget about the role prescribed to them by the society, nevertheless, they still strive for peace and order. The price is often very high as they lose their identity but also their friends and relatives who do not recognize them anymore. The unwanted gift of hybrid identity and racial alienation became the dominant issue discussed in postcolonial novels by Kureishi, Smith or Malkani. Marta Mamet-Michałkiewicz (Silesia University) e-mail: marta.mamet-michalkiewicz@us.edu.pl Presentation in English: In Search of Ariadne s Thread: The Thousand and One Nights as an Example of Literary and Cultural Hybridity W poszukiwaniu nici Ariadny: Księga tysiąca i jednej nocy jako przykład kulturowej i literackiej hybrydyczności Przedmiotem artykułu jest ukazanie procesu literackich i (między)kulturowych przekształceń, jakim została poddana Księga tysiąca i jednej nocy będąca nomadycznym dziełem, usytuowanym na styku Orientu i Okcydentu. Tysiąc i jedna noc na przełomie VIII i XIX w. istniała jedynie w przekazie ustnym w krajach arabskich. Natomiast pierwsze europejskie tłumaczenia Księgi, które powstały w XVIII w., wywarły niebagatelny wpływ na dyskurs orientalizmu w ujęciu Saida oraz na postrzeganie Orientu per se przez kulturę zachodnią. Celem powyższego artykułu jest wykazanie, że Księga tysiąca i jednej nocy stanowi swoisty przykład kulturowej i literackiej hybrydyczności ze względu na proces metamorfoz, jakim jest 26

poddawana, począwszy od czasów jej powstania, przez liczne europejskie tłumaczenia, a skończywszy na współczesnych nawiązaniach do dzieła w literaturze anglojęzycznej. Niniejszy artykuł podważa zmitologizowaną wizję Księgi, która nadal przybiera w wyobrażeniach człowieka Zachodu postać egzotycznego zbioru baśni czy też opowiadań ludowych. Nawiązując do Bhabhy, który sygnalizuje ambiwalencję dyskursu kolonialnego, potrzebę rozpoznawalnego Innego oraz do koncepcji Spivak, która nakreśla postrzeganie Innego jako cień Pierwszego, wykazuję mechanizmy kształtujące postrzeganie Księgi tysiąca i jednej nocy. Tysiąc i jedna noc funkcjonuje również jako intertekst w literaturach współczesnych. Analiza przemian, jakim zostały poddane tzw. Baśnie tysiąca i jednej nocy pozwala na rewizję dialogu kultury brytyjskiej z Orientem, na zestawienie Zachodniej wizji Orientu z jego wizerunkiem kształtującym się w pisarstwie współczesnych pisarzy anglojęzycznych wywodzących się głownie z byłych kolonii brytyjskich. We współczesnych nawiązaniach do tradycji Księgi tysiąca i jednej nocy wyłania się obraz Trzeciego, który nie będąc ani Pierwszym ani Innym, wpisuje się w proces hybrydyzacji oraz zyskuje własną podmiotowość przynależąc do kultur współczesnych. Tysiąc i jedna noc zostaje bowiem umieszczona w kontekście nieustających prób rekonstruowania jej na nowo za pomocą współczesnych metafikcji i metanarracji. 27