Language and Migration: Translation in Contemporary Literature

Catalog description

In this course, we will examine the relationship between language, migration, and translation in contemporary literature, and how these relationships are also relevant to pressing social, political, and legal issues in the world today. We will read texts primarily written by immigrants, refugees, or members of different diasporas in different parts of the world, and consider both theories of linguistic communication and translation and their concrete effects on people's lives. Some of the texts and authors we will consider are: codeswitching and codemeshing (Junot Díaz); translation and love (Xiaolu Guo); language and political violence (Ágota Kristóf; Ubah Cristina Ali Farah); language and exile (Edward Said; Eva Hoffman); language and race (Frantz Fanon; Nadeesha Uyangoda); language acquisition and disability (Claudia Durastanti); translation and violence (Igiaba Scego; Valeria Luiselli).