Centre for Translating Cultures

Round Table

Main speaker: Dr Birgul Yilmaz (Modern Languages and Cultures).

Discussants: Prof Dongbo Zhang (School of Education) and Prof Sonia Cunico (Modern Languages and Cultures)

Title: Linguistic precarity, (im)mobility and refugees in Greece

This presentation is based on an 18 month long ethnographic fieldwork in Athens. The author observes English language classes organised in a radical café by refugees living in a squat. She deals with their condition of (im)mobility and their linguistic needs, investigating how waiting as a bordering technology shapes language learning practices of refugees whilst they plan their journeys to northern Europe paying human smugglers. Yilmaz explores how language and communication intersect with (im)mobility. More specifically, she investigates how language learning and communication practices of refugees are shaped by their precarious conditions. The notion of linguistic precarity refers to uncertainties, anxieties, vulnerabilities, insecurities experienced by individuals who make temporary investments in their language learning choices. Dr Yilmaz discusses how her participants mobilise vulnerability, lack of language(s), through self-organised teaching and learning, to reduce their condition of precarity.

Poetry reading

Coordinated by Prof Luciano Parisi (co-director of the Centre for Translating Cultures).

As US scholar Walter Ong once noted, ‘voice and language are distinct objects for the anthropologist. But voice without language (a shout, voice-control exercises) has a certain impotence, and so does language without voice, writing.’ A poetry reading brings together voice and language in a combination that most of us should re-discover or want to re-experience. Interestingly, French scholar Paul Zumthor observed that, ‘as an expansion of the body, vocality does not exhaust orality. Indeed, it implies everything in us that is addressed to the other, be it a mute gesture, a look. Gestures and looks, in fact, are of equal concern.’ A gestural mode is ‘part of the competence of the interpreter and is projected into performance.’ Other stimulating observations made by Zumthor on orality will be circulated closer to the event.

This poetry reading will be held in person (but also online, if helpful), in languages other than English. Each participant (student, teacher or member of staff) will have 7 minutes to very briefly introduce a poem of their choice and read it while a translation into English is screened. Each session will last approximately one and a half hour and include 7 or 8 poems followed by Q&As. All languages are welcome.

The organizers would be grateful if those interested in reading a poem could send l.parisi@exeter.ac.uk an email with the indication of their chosen poem (or part of a poem), its author, the language in which it is written, and an English translation of the text.

Research seminar

Dr Edward Mills (Modern Languages and Cultures)

Title: Cultures of French in medieval Oxford

Oxford has the unusual distinction of being the only place in Britain during the medieval period where there was evidence of a formal curriculum for the learning of French. The so-called ‘Oxford dictatores’, several of whose manuscripts survive, offered extensive training in French composition, conversation, and conveyancing (property law). In this short overview, I’ll examine three of the model letters that survive from one such manuscript, asking what they suggest about who learned French and why, and suggesting that, six centuries before discussion of the ‘language’ / ‘content’ divide in MFL degrees, medieval language pedagogy saw the two as inseparable.

Discussant: Dr Zoe Boughton (Modern Languages and Cultures).

Research seminar: Prof Chloe Paver (Modern Languages and Cultures)

Leichte Sprache as Cultural Practice in German and Austrian History Museums

This paper is about a particular communication challenge in Germany, one that sits at the intersection of language, accessibility, history, and politics.

One of the ways in which German and Austrian history museums have made themselves more accessible is by offering text in Leichte Sprache (easy language), or LS. This simplified written text is aimed primarily at people with learning disabilities; its secondary audiences are migrants to Germany and Austria and German native speakers with limited reading skills. Publicly funded broadcasters are also increasingly offering material in simplified language.

The leading academic experts on LS have an interest in defining the production of text in LS as a form of translation. I see at least two issues with this approach. First, the scholars’ approach to translation is primarily linguistic, neglecting the cultural dimension, even though real-life examples show that cultural understanding is a major challenge for producers of LS (and the key challenge for producers of LS texts about the Nazi era). Secondly, while text-to-text translation is already a standard practice in museums, encouraging LS ‘translation’ as an add-on to existing translation practices risks failing the intended audience of people with learning disabilities, for whom mixed-media or non-textual approaches may be as valuable.

This paper will interest anybody working on topics in communication, accessibility, translation, memory, and museums. It is part of an open-ended investigation into accessible writing practices and seeks ideas on how best to proceed with the research.

Content warning: the paper includes a discussion of the treatment of human remains at crematoria.

Professor Luciano Parisi and Professor Muireann Maguire co-direct the Centre for Translating Cultures.

For all enquiries regarding centre activies in the 2024-25 academic year, please email Luciano.

For all enquiries regarding centre activies in the 2025-26 academic year, please email Muireann.