Intercultural Literature Research Articles

The Non-Western Legacy: Bīruni as a Pioneer of Intercultural Thinking and Studies

Abstract: The complex histories of anthropology, comparative cultural studies, and intercultural communication are longer, more diverse, and considerably more international, than has been generally accounted for. This introductory overview offers a brief account of the achievements of Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, an Iranian geographer, historian, social scientist, and polymath of the late tenth and early eleventh centuries CE. Evidence of his pioneering work in describing and comparing cultures is presented to show his understanding of intercultural studies and the foundations of what would become anthropology. Biruni’s classic volume on Indian culture is worthy of consideration against modern anthropological and intercultural research literature, while it might inspire more in-depth research on Biruni and on other Persian and Islamic scholars of his time and through the ages.

TEXTOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MANUSCRIPT TEXTS OF THE SONG «BOZUGLAN», AHMETBEK AND ZHUSUPBEK»

In this article, manuscripts of epos «Bozoglan, Ahmetbek, Zhusipbek» published in Kazan in scientific work "Babalarsozi" and manuscripts of epos "Yusuf beg - Ahmet beg" from the fund of manuscripts of Academy of Science of Turkmenistan are analyzed. Explanations to some words, phrases and meanings from text are given in the Kazakh version of manuscripts. In our article, we compare the Kazakh-Turkmen text of the poem, compare some words and concepts that contradict each other or cannot convey meaning in verses, comparing them with detailed examples. We have considered that the results of our research and evaluation will be useful to future researchers in this area. Analysis of the works was done according to intercultural literature researches and methodologies build upon them. This article states that historical literature of early periods, should be analyzed considering the features, literary traditions, and usage of words of that period.

Reconceptualizing intercultural communicative competence: A multinational perspective

Given current trends in international education, many institutions of higher education in the United States and elsewhere seek to prepare students for life and careers in a globalized world. For many institutions, this means internationalizing curriculum and campus, increasing educational exchange opportunities (for both domestic and international students), and developing intercultural abilities in their students. In the process, several questions arise: (1) which strategies are effective, (2) what research gaps exist, (3) what standards measure quality, and (4) what factors determine the quality and effectiveness of their efforts while lacking evidence about competencies? This article explores a possible response to the questions posed drawing on half a century of experience in educational exchange and intercultural service, a review of the intercultural literature, plus two multinational research projects. These combined efforts led to an expansion and (re)conceptualization of the seminar theme of intercultural effectiveness. Despite more than 50 terms found in the literature (including “intercultural effectiveness”) (see, among others, Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2004; Edelstein, 2014; Martin and Nakayama, 2000), to describe abilities needed for intercultural interaction, one term emerges as perhaps the most comprehensive and most accurate – intercultural communicative competence (ICC).

Crossroads of Global and Local Identity in Contemporary Latvian Migrant Literature: Reflections on the Novel Stroika with a London View by W. B. Foreignerski (V. Lācītis)

This paper deals with the contemporary migration experience as seen through the subjective lens of a literary text. The analysis focuses on the novel Stroika with a London View by the Latvian diaspora writer William B. Foreignerski (Vilis Lācītis in the Latvian version). Foreignerski combines the portrayal of proletarians’ survival with entertaining and comical scenes from daily life. In the novel the story is told from the perspective of the narrator in the first person singular, thus the different relationships between the protagonist and the surrounding environment are already defined by this choice.
 In the novel the image of London is of great significance as a metropolis and multicultural city in which most of the events described in the novel occur. London is the key determinant for the poetics of intercultural literature in the novel – London can be a labyrinth, an initiation, a trap or a springboard. London as a city that can provide everything that life can offer gives one a chance not only to break away from the economic limitations at home but also from the ideological narrowness of the protagonist’s homeland as it is depicted in the novel. The start of the quest for a new life at the beginning of the novel is to a certain extent traumatic as it is characteristically in traditional emigrant literature. However, with the intercultural approach used by Foreignerski, the migration experience results in the freedom to accept new ideas and in gaining new horizons for the protagonist as well as for the reader.

La literatura de migración en lengua alemana traducida al español

Intercultural or migration literature does not play a leading role in the Spanish publishing market. Philological research has often approached the reception of German literature in Spain from a general perspective, but works written in German by authors with a migrant background have not been studied nor analysed in the same way yet. In this crossroads where the so-called intercultural literature is to be found, it seems necessary to add the complementary approach provided by the translation of the works written by migrants or by migrants’ descendants intoa third language (in this case, Spanish), since they have become are a real niche market in the German-speaking publishing world. In this paper we aim at stating the standpoint of the Spanish publishing market regarding intercultural literature written in German, displaying statistics and exploring the causes that lie behind.

The Social and Literary Context of German Translations of Saʿdi’s Golestān

Saʿdi’s Golestān has been translated into German numerous times since the seventeenth century. The purpose of this article is to examine the social and literary context of three German translations and translators: Karl Heinrich Graf, a theologian and researcher of the Old Testament, published his translation of the Golestān in 1846 during German Romanticism; Dieter Bellmann, a professor of Oriental studies, published a revision of Graf’s Rosengarten in 1982 in the German Democratic Republic, where literature was strictly regulated; Kathleen Göpel published her indirect translation from English, prepared by the Afghan translator Omar Ali-Shah, in 1997, at a time of intercultural literature, also called “bridge literature.” Through examples the article shows how the context may have influenced their translations and how the text has changed when traveling across linguistic and cultural borders.

Heimat und fragile Werte. Lavinia Braniştes Null Komma Irgendwas

Abstract Using the example of Lavinia Branişte’s novel Null Komma Irgendwas, the present article will explore the value of intercultural literature through a specific poetry. I will analyze with a close reading how questions of values as well as questions of apprehension of’ home’ are presented through a specific narrativ. I will draw paralells to Gottfried Keller´s Die drei gerechten Kammmacherandto Friedrich Nietzsche’s poem Vereinsamt.

The difficulties of calling ‘I’ and ‘you’: The problems of personal pronouns and I in Yoko Tawada’s texts

다와다 요코는 독일어와 일본어, 두 언어로 글을 쓰면서 경계를 넘나드는 작가이다. 그의 문학적 관심은 언어 문제에 집중되어 있는데 이 논문은 그중 인칭대명사의 문제를 중점적으로 다룬다. 작가는 일본어 문화권의 다른 경험을 바탕으로 인칭, 젠더, 그리고 단복수에 따라 분류되는 독일어의 공고한 인칭대명사의 체제를 상호문화적 시각에서 허물고있다. 1인칭에 대한 대명사가 복수로 존재하는 문화권에서 자기동일성의 문제를 겪은 작가는 독일어의 1인칭의 대명사의 단수 존재 현상에 대해 우선적으로 해방감을 느낀다. 그러나 작가는 곧 독일어에서도 창작자의 눈으로 1인칭 인칭대명사의 다양한 양태를 발견하거나 혹은 문학 텍스트에서 새롭게 만드는 실험을 시도한다. 특히 1인칭과 2인칭의 혼종화, 2인칭과 3인칭의 혼종화 시도는 독자에게 당혹감을 주며 인칭대명사의 존재와 기능에 대해 근본적인 성찰을 하게 만드는 사례들이라 할 수 있다. 본 논문은 다와다의 문학에 나타난 인칭대명사의 문제가 단순히 언어 문제에 그치는 것이 아니라 서양의 공고한 ‘자 아’에 대한 철학적, 문화정치적 문제를 건드리고 있음을 다루고자 하였다. 이때 자전적, 이론적 에세이뿐 아니라 소설 작품 [용의자의 야간열차]와 [벌거벗은 눈]에 나타난 인칭대명사의 실험을 예로 들어 작가가 1인칭, 2인칭, 3인칭의 경계를 넘나들며 소설의 화자와인물의 관계 및 서양의 확고한 자아관을 흔들고 있음을 보여주었다.Yoko Tawada is a writer crossing boundaries of language and culture through her experimental writing in German and Japanese languages. Her writing focuses on the theme of language as a media between the individual and the world and does it by discovering and producing the new possibilities of language, approaching it from her strange and hybrid perspective. This paper specifically deals with the problem of the personal pronouns in her literary texts. The author breaks down the barrier of the established German and Japanese language pronoun system which pigeonholes the first, second, third person, gender, and singular/plural pronouns. Her new hybrid use is based on her experiences of the Japanese and German culture and shows the essence of intercultural literature. Tawada, originating from the Japanese culture, where the first person pronoun exists plural, feels the freedom at the existence of one single first pronoun in German language. But she makes experiments in hybridizing the first, second and the third person pronouns and brings the western philosophy of identity into question. This thesis attempts to show that the problem of pronouns in her literary texts is not merely a matter of language problem, but also relates to the problems concerning language philosophy as well as subject philosophy of the West. The text analysis handles her autobiographical and theoretical essays as well as the experiments of personal pronouns in the novels Suspect on the Night Train and Das nackte Auge.

Reconciling multiple realities in an international joint venture: a case for deliberately fostering communication hybridity at the interfirm interface

ABSTRACTExamples of international joint ventures (IJVs) abound in the intercultural business literature but provide relatively few insights into how interlocutors experience communication at the interorganisational interfaces of these hybrid organisational forms. This article presents findings from a case study of a Sino-New Zealand IJV that sought to understand interorganisational communication from the key actors’ points of view. It revealed that misalignment between these interlocutors’ expectations about communication created a dysfunctional hybrid form of interface communication that frustrated both companies and put their collaboration at risk. Key actors’ accounts of this communication were examined to understand this dysfunction and develop a model for fostering constructive hybridised communication. This proposes that, rather than inhibiting constructive collective action, hybridity can allow the IJV to flourish if it is deliberately harnessed through the application of a mutually agreeable model of engagement established prior to a formal IJV agreement being made.

Tekstowa wielojęzyczność w niemieckojęzycznych utworach pisarzy polskiego pochodzenia (Artur Becker, Dariusz Muszer, Matthias Nawrat)

Tematem artykułu jest fenomen tzw. literatury migracyjnej w Niemczech rozumianej jako konstrukt, którego zasadność już od wielu lat jest przedmiotem krytyki. „Migracyjność” tekstów literackich nie jest tu uważana za ich integralną cechę, ale za kategorię dyskursywną odnoszącą się przede wszystkim do ich recepcji. Jedną z cech charakteryzujących tzw. literaturę migracyjną jest językowa hybrydyczność – przedstawiona na przykładzie wybranych powieści Dariusza Muszera, Artura Beckera i Matthiasa Nawrata. Według autorki skala użycia hybrydyczności językowej zmienia się w zależności od pokolenia migracji: intensywniej korzystają z tekstowej wielojęzyczności Muszer i Becker, którzy wyemigrowali do Niemiec już jako dorośli (tu język jest jednym z bohaterów powieści – „wirtuozeria języka”), rzadziej sięga po nią Nawrat, który, wyjeżdżając z Polski, był dzieckiem (na plan pierwszy wysuwa się „wirtuozerię narracji”). Analiza poprzedzona jest przeglądem stanu badań literaturoznawczych dotyczących tzw. literatury migracyjnej w Niemczech, polskiej literatury migracyjnej w Niemczech oraz hybrydyczności językowej (wielojęzyczności tekstowej) w literaturze inter- i transkulturowej.

ЛІТЕРАТУРНЕ УГРУПОВАННЯ «ЗЕВОНІЯ». ІСТОРІЯ ТА ФОЛЬКЛОР

The article analyses the group of writers «Ziewonia», in the work and activities of which Slavophile ideas have strengthened through cycles of translations, songs and dumas. It reveals interest in the culture of the Slavic people in the 30s of the 19th century. It analyses the idea of national identity and ethnic culture using a differentiated approach to the phe- nomena of literary folklore, which becomes the main motive of «Ziewonia». The level of Ziewonia’s comprehension in Polish science is not significant yet but still to be more learned than in Ukrai- nian science. The article is said about the first period of the XIX century which is characterized by emergence of artistic achievements as exemplified by the interaction of intercultural literature. The Romantic era encouraged the first contact and special activity of folk Ukrainians interested by young Polish writers who are called in the Polish history of literature «Ziewonia». The main representatives were Augustin Bielovsky (the critic and translator, the employee of the Ossolineum institution), Josef and Alexander (Leshek) Dunin-Borkovsky (writers and critics), Lucian Semensky (the poet and novel- ist), Kazimiezh Vladislav Wojcicky (collector of folk songs) and Ludvik Jablonsky (also the critic of Ukrainian literature), finally the Ukrainian writers called the «Russian Trinity», the organization which united enthusiastic researchers of Ukrainian folklore. It is found out that main activities of this Slavophil group were translation and popularization of literature merits. They gave exemplary translations of important Slavic works such as: «Krolodworsky Manuscript», «Zielona Gora Manuscript», selected sonnets from «The daughters of Kollar’s fame», the significant number of Serbian folk songs, many Ukrainian poems and «The Tale of Igor’s Campaign». Folk society and folk songs were glorified and stylized. The key findings of the research prove that deep and intensive relationships between different literacy circles (Ukrainian and Polish) collaborated the future mutual writer’s group for the next historical period.

BETWEEN THE OWN AND THE FOREIGN. MIGRATION EXPERIENCES IN MELINDA NADJ ABONJI’S AND IRENA BREŽNÁ’S NOVELS

Current developments in German-language literature show how much literature is shaped by social changes. In the past, Germanlanguage literature has repeatedly reported on waves of emigration and refugee movements, and that's what it does today. The refugee problem is therefore also in the literature a recurring theme. Contemporary authors from the German-speaking countries such as Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Feridun Zaimoğlu, Ilija Trojanow, Catalin Dorian Florescu or Abbas Khider, who experienced migration for a variety of reasons, are proof of this current trend. The Hungarian-Swiss author Melinda Nadj Abonji with her novel Tauben fliegen auf (2010) and the Slovak-Swiss author Irena Brežná with their most recent novel Die undankbare Fremde (2012) are also part of this trend. The own experiences of escape, foreignness and integration of the two authors, who make an important contribution to intercultural literature in Switzerland, characterize their work in a particularly emphatic manner and thus also repeatedly implicate a discussion of the autobiographical background. The paper intends to bring the culture contact into focus and thus to open the scientific discussion on two important literary texts of German-speaking Swiss contemporary literature and to examine how a migrant deals with the change of culture and how its identity is shaped by it. The construction of unfamiliar spaces, in which the identity unfolds between the adaptation to the prevailing norms and the resistance to a foreign language and cultural space, leads to the research objectives: to study the concepts of the own and foreign and to concretize intercultural aspects in both novels.

Literatura antropológica en Chile: una manifestación de literatura intercultural

Anthropological literature in Chile is an intercultural and interdisciplinary literature, written by contemporary Chilean anthropologists and archaeologists. They are looking for a new way of communicating their field work and anthropological knowledge. This article presents the main conclusions of a research whose objetive was to define and characterize anthropological literature as an intercultural literature.

Rethinking the hegemony of English in twentieth-century Portugal: some figures and beyond

ABSTRACT To pinpoint the hypothesized change of status of French and English as the hypercentral language in Portugal by the mid-twentieth century, this paper follows the methodology suggested by Johan Heilbron for the identification of a world system of book translation. It accordingly maps relations between language groups and analyses translation flows regarding source languages, considering data on translation in Portugal by Index Translationum, Pordata, and the National Library of Portugal and on literary translation by the online database Intercultural Literature in Portugal 1930–2000: A Critical Bibliography. This paper thereby endeavours to track the evolution of the announced hypercentrality of English in the Portuguese (literary) system in the twentieth century. The data analysed in this paper show that it was Spanish, rather than English, that became the quantitatively hypercentral language in the Portuguese literary book market once the cultural clout of France began to wane. This evidence, therefore, calls for a rethinking of the oft-mentioned centrality of English in contemporary Portugal and for the possible consideration of a regional system. However, it also suggests the need for a rethinking of the conceptual frameworks used to address linguistic imperialism and cultural hegemonies, so as to not only consider numerical data but also go beyond them.

"En tierras bajas" de Herta Müller: mirada crítica hacia las cicatrices de una infancia irrespirable

A través de la mirada y la voz narrativa de una niña rumana, la escritora Herta Müller nos acerca con su ópera prima Niederungen (En tierras bajas) a las cicatrices aún hoy vivas de su propia infancia en un pequeño pueblo ubicado en la región de Timisoara en la época de la dictadura de Nicolae Ceaucescu. Este artículo pretende una aproximación crítica a la recurrente temática centrada en la denuncia del país dejado atrás por la escritora tras su experiencia de exilio a la entonces Alemania occidental en el año 1987. Un análisis crítico de esta primera obra publicada por Müller en lengua alemana nos acerca a la literatura intercultural de la escritora migrante rumano-alemana cuya calidad y trayectoria literaria la hizo merecedora en 2009 del Premio Nobel de Literatura.

Máseual excluido/indio permitido: neoliberal translation in Waldemar Noh Tzec

ABSTRACTThis article examines issues of translation in contemporary Yucatec Maya literature, using selected poems from Waldemar Noh Tzec’s 1998 Noj Bálam/Large Jaguar as a representative case of how the Mexican state and ideologies of neoliberal multiculturalism may inflect the translation of indigenous text. In arguing for the existence of neoliberal translation, I use DuBois’s notion of double-consciousness and Rivera Cusicanqui’s theory of the ‘indio permitido’ to demonstrate how some bilingual indigenous texts create a space that is simultaneously inclusive and exclusionary, a literary phenomenon I refer to as the ‘máseual excluido/indio permitido’. I suggest that when nationalizing projects reduce indigenous language texts to objects that vouchsafe the ethnic particulars of indigenous authors, they do not so much create an intercultural literature so much as reinforce the linguistic status quo of bilingual indigenous and monolingual non-indigenous subjects. Moreover, the apparent translations of indigenous texts into Spanish must in some sense correspond to the expectations of non-indigenous readers. In cases like that of Noh Tzec’s poetry, this means that indigenous- and Spanish-language texts may convey wildly divergent messages to distinct readerships.

›- rein, fein, Edelstein‹

This article explores the representation of dirtyness and cleanliness in German, French and Swedish contemporary intercultural literature. Special attention is paid to the figure of the cleaning woman. It will be analysed how the novels’ characters assert themselves in the hybrid space between different ethnic belongings and class affiliations. The article highlights the narrative strategy of ›writing back‹ in order to impede being discriminated as a ›dirty immigrant‹ or ›white trash‹ and to promote social advancement. A comparative analysis shows similarities but also important differences in how ›dirty work‹ is negotiated in different literary and societal contexts.

Ana Manzanas and Jesus Benito, Cities, Borders, and Spaces in Intercultural American Literature and Film

Consacre a la representation des zones frontalieres, cet ouvrage d’Ana Manzanas et Jesus Benito propose une nouvelle poetique de l’espace urbain dans la litterature americaine contemporaine. En debut et en fin d’essai, il offre aussi des perspectives novatrices sur l’approche cinematographique de ces lieux transitoires et babeliens. Se soustrayant a toute definition en termes de limite, d’enceinte, de mur de demarcation, les frontieres urbaines sont des lieux ou la mouvance devient mode d’hab...

Tradução como ferramenta de intermediação cultural a exemplo da obra Histórias da Noite (Erzähler der Nacht), de Rafik Schami

<p>Com a ascensão da literatura intercultural em diversas partes do mundo, o diálogo entre as culturas se faz cada vez mais necessário, de modo a promover a convivência e a compreensão da existência do Outro e de Si próprio. O desdobramento desta questão vem sendo paulatinamente construído no contexto recente brasileiro por meio da tradução de obras de autores estrangeiros, permitindo o acesso a outras formas culturalmente condicionadas de percepção de mundo e de realidade. Em uma primeira instância do artigo em questão, o conceito de tradução é abordado como uma ferramenta que fomenta o intercâmbio cultural através de sua intermediação. O debate acerca desta questão é ilustrado em um segundo momento, cuja obra Histórias da Noite (original alemão: Erzähler der Nacht), de Rafik Schami, escritor sírio exilado na Alemanha, será utilizada como objeto de análise.</p>

Intercultural communication: Where we’ve been, where we’re going, issues we face

The purpose of this review is to critically analyze the state of intercultural communication literature. This review has three purposes. First, this review summarizes where the discipline has been, paying close attention to the discipline’s history and some key areas of research. Second, this review discusses where the discipline is going, with an emphasis on how the discipline is expanding into new contextual areas of research. Finally, the review presents challenges, issues, and areas for future discussion for intercultural communication.