Monday Online Presentation Session 2

Multilingualism, Multiculturalism, & Cultural Studies

Session Chair: Robert Hamilton

13:30-13:55

69535 | Nowhere in Her Homeland: On the Cultural Back-Translation of Assia Djebar’s Francophone Texts

Sanaa Benmessaoud, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Nawar Al-Hassan Golley, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

While there is a wealth of research on Assia Djebar’s francophone texts, including their translation in other languages, there are very few studies looking into how these texts have fared in Arabic translation. To fill this gap, the present article explores the back-translation of Djebar’s works in the Arab world, especially in her home country, Algeria. Drawing on Jiresch and Broomans’ (2011) model of cultural transfer, it first investigates the transfer of Djebar’s oeuvre in the Arab world. Adopting Klaudy and Heltai’s (2020) typology of cultural back-translation, the article then analyzes the Arabic translation of Djebar’s last novel, Nulle part dans la maison de mon père (2007; Nowhere in My Father’s House). The findings show that not only has the transfer of Djebar’s works back in the Arab world failed, with the majority of these works being held in a prolonged quarantine, but that even when one of these works successfully makes it through the phases of cultural transfer, the discursive choices made during the translation process end up foreignizing the text, further alienating the writer.

13:55-14:20

70807 | Rearing the Other: A Critical Approach to Multiculturalism in South Korea, 2023

Robert Hamilton, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies,

South Korea

This research investigates the use of political silencing in South Korea and its impact on non-Koreans or ‘foreigners’ living in the country. Drawing on empirical studies and participatory-observation, research illustrates how Korea’s philosophical humanism leads to a society where foreigners can be included, but perpetually bound within a conditional status where Koreans must rear them into upstanding humans and, by default, make them more Korean. The findings show that despite diversification in mass media representation (e.g., TV shows, movies, commercials), non-Koreans remain bounded within a perpetual ‘child’ status due to the country’s political and security-driven need to stifle the voices of those who are not ethnically and nationally Korean. However, the research also provides new insights into how certain non-media industries and efforts, such as nation-building projects, civic campaigns, and labor unions, are helping to break through the trend of silence and create new forms of representation and opportunities. These industries include those that focus on strengthening multicultural policies and normalization of foreigner participation in community spaces. The research specifically highlights the need for greater awareness and understanding of how political silencing operates in South Korean and its impact on foreigners living in the country. It also highlights the need of opportunities that can more effectively break the barriers that perpetuate foreigners as ‘child’ status.

14:20-14:45

68180 | Multilingualism in Zuberoa (Northern Basque Country) at the End of the XIX Century: Uses of the Languages

Elorri Arcocha, Public University of Navarre, Spain

Mikel Bueno, Public University of Navarre, Spain

At the end of the XIX century the Third French Republic has turned the French language into the main symbol of the nation and was conducting a policy to integrate rural areas into the official and main culture. In the Basque region, the clergy was a fervent defender of the Basque and was using it to confront republican agents. Clergy men were indeed alphabetizing peasants in a "non-regulated" way. Although Zuberoa was a multilingual region (Basque mostly, but French, Béarnais and even Spanish were also spoken), we assume that there existed a context of diglossia, understood as Claude Hagège define the concept of “bilinguisme inégalitaire”, in which French and the culture related to it had an increasingly prestige. This paper aims at explaining from the point of view of the "history from below" the strategies used and developed by the lower classes to adapt to the historical context they were getting through. In order to explain that, a sample of 290 letters from different collections of Basque migrants to America as well as letters from soldiers of the First World War have been analysed, resulting in a differentiation of the use of the various languages according to several factors, such as the relation between the sender and the recipient, the subject addressed and the social class. Nevertheless, differentiation does not mean inflexibility, in such a way that the contexts in which languages are used may overlap.