• Tue 21 04 2020 / 7 pm •
Exophony:
Mother Tongue Other Tongue
Due to the situation regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19), Exophony: Mother Tongue Other Tongue had to be postponed.
See the online version of this event
with RANJIT HOSKOTÉ, BANAFSHE HOURMAZDI, ILIJA TROJANOW
Poet, curator, translator and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskoté addresses the concept of the ‘mother tongue’ in his lecture, with all other learned languages set against it as ‘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.
In addition to the lecture, Hoskoté presents a selection of his poetry in English. Actor Banafshe Hourmazdi presents the poems in a German translation.
The evening ends with a discussion between Hoskoté and the author, translator and publisher Ilija Trojanow. In 2007 Hoskoté and Trojanow published Kampfabsage, which stands in contrast to the idea of the ‘clash of civilizations’. In their polemic, they trace the blending of cultures as a dynamic transhistorical process, illuminating the relationship between cultural transactional processes, multilingualism and national power politics.
Start: 7:00 pm
English: English | German
Venue: Literaturhaus Köln, Großer Griechenmarkt 39, 50676 Cologne
Tickets: 11€ | 9€ (regular | reduced), possibly plus service fee
Exophony: Mother Tongue Other Tongue is 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 event Exophony: Mother Tongue Other Tongue is organized in cooperation with Literaturhaus Köln.
The program series Exophony: is funded by Kunststiftung NRW.
