‘Besteen Ahotsa/La Voix des Autres’, a conference on multilingualism and literature

Euskara. Kultura. Mundura.

2021-07-09

A new initiative for those interested in literature and linguistic diversity in non-hegemonic languages is underway. The Etxepare Basque Institute, Université Laval de Québec, the Québec PEN Club and the Basque PEN Club have joined forces to organise the ´La Voix des Autres / Besteen ahotsa´ conference as part of the cultural exchange programme ´Saison Québec - Pays Basque´. The event will take place online on 13 and 14 October 2021. Issues such as multilingualism and literature will be discussed.

The conference will cover various aspects of linguistic diversity, such as multilingual environments with minority languages, Franco-Québec literature, literature on visual and cultural minorities, and literary production in the Basque Country, Québec and North America. There will be presentations with round-table discussions at the end of each session. Registration is free and will begin in September.

The aim of this conference is to promote a comparative study of literatures developed from the periphery or from the margins and in this way study literature in languages that do not enjoy priority markets in their own countries. The featured lectures by experts at the conference will identify the traits shared by these literary creations.

The speakers will also examine the actual conditions and circumstances of the Basque Country and Québec from a literary perspective. In the Basque Country, more than 2,000 books are published in the Basque language every year, but the major Spanish and French markets are available to Basque writers, who are bilingual. As for Québec, local literary creation is trying to find a place between two major French and English-speaking markets.

Submission of proposals

To complete the programme, the organisers have put out a call for papers from researchers and experts. Academics working on the topics to be discussed at the conference have until 15 August to submit their proposals. Details of the call can be found at: https://www.euskalpen.eus/besteenahotsalavoixdesautres

The presentations will have a duration of 15 minutes, followed by a 10-minute question period. Those interested in participating should send a proposal of up to 300 words to the following email address: balvda21@gmail.com. The email should include the name(s) of the researcher(s), the university affiliation(s), and the subject and title of the talk.

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