CORE094 Migrations through languages and literatures

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2023
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Ivo Buzek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Christophe Gérard L. Cusimano (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Pavla Doležalová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Petr Dytrt, Ph.D. (lecturer)
prof. PhDr. Petr Kyloušek, CSc. (lecturer)
doc. Egle Mocciaro, Dottore di Ricerca (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Alena Němcová Polická, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Mgr. Daniel Vázquez Touriño, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Egle Mocciaro, Dottore di Ricerca
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Romance Languages and Literatures – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 12:00–13:40 C33, except Tue 14. 11.
Prerequisites
None.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 100 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 27/100, only registered: 0/100, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/100
Course objectives
The course will offer an introductory path through some nuclear themes related to the complex relationships between territorial mobility and languages, on the one hand, and literary production, on the other hand, in the present and in the recent past. The notion of migration is understood here in a relatively broad sense, encompassing various facets of the human being's relationship to the space s/he traverses and inhabits. These include voluntary or, more often, socially induced displacements, such as the current migratory phenomena directed towards Europe or from Europe towards overseas destinations, etc.; forced displacement induced by climate change or, as we observe every day, by political conflict, and other related phenomena.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, students will have acquired a more multifaceted understanding of: - the notion of territorial multilingualism and individual plurilingualism; - the complexity of today's urban linguistic landscapes; - the impact of the experience of mobility on self-representation; - the reflexes of the experience of mobility on autobiographical narratives; - the reflexes of the experience of mobility on literary narratives.
Syllabus
  • The course is divided into thematic blocks including: - territorial multilingualism and individual plurilingualism; - migrant languages; - linguistic landscapes; - migrant literatures; - autobiographical narrative and linguistic autobiography. LESSON PLAN TU 19/9 and 26/9, Mocciaro, LANGUAGES AND LITERACY IN NEW MIGRATION. General description of the topic. “Repertoire” is a key notion in sociolinguistics, where it indicates the sum of linguistic resources (languages and language varieties) coexisting in a linguistic community or in an individual. The linguistic repertoires dealt with in these lectures are those used by individuals whose migratory route starts in sub-Saharan Africa, crosses the Mediterranean Sea and lands in Europe, often passing through the Italian coasts. Recent research refers to such a mobility through generic labels such as “new migrants” and “new migration”, where the adjective “new” refers not only to the time elapsed since their arrival in Europe, but to the characteristics of the migratory paths and individual profiles, which show specific features compared to those observed a few decades ago. This involves linguistic repertoires, since new migrants arrive from highly multilingual contexts, such as Sub-Saharan African countries, and this multilingualism further increase during migration. This may also include the development of reading-writing skills, not developed in the countries of origin through schooling and now acquired informally among peers, or that of new forms of writing. Teaching methodology. The 2 lessons include face-to-face teaching and open class discussion. In particular, after an overview of the topics covered, students will actively participate through plenary discussions and individual, peer or group work, in which they will be asked to analyse and comment on documents, case studies and problems. Teaching materials. A reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course and dedicated materials (video interviews, transcripts, study materials) will be prepared and shared. TU. 3/10, Cusimano, SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE DIFFICULTIES OF IMMIGRANTS IN NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL SCREENING IN FRANCE. We will focus on the difficulties faced by immigrants (here from the Maghreb) in France when taking cognitive tests, especially those used to screen for memory disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. We will try to determine whether these are specific challenges, and whether they can be clearly seen in their discourse, in their cultural habits, etc. To do this, we'll briefly introduce the cognitive tests used in memory screening and submit long excerpts from interviews transcribed and translated into English. This session is designed to be interactive: after a 45-minute theoretical presentation, students will work in small groups on the corpus of interviews with immigrant patients. Tu. 10/10, Němcová Polická, PATHWAYS OF DIFFUSION AND SEDIMENTATION OF MIGRATED WORDS. The migration of people, things and ideas results in the innovation of all the linguistic plans of the language that is exposed to it. Borrowings or loanwords adapt to a language through various processes such as phonological adaptation, semantic adaptation, and the introduction of new phonemes and new prosodic schemas. Different types of adaptation of loanwords will be explained and analyzed in authentic contexts. A reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course. During the course, excerpts from music videos and from films will be analyzed in small groups and then discussed in relation to the theoretical framework. Tu. 17/10, Brigitta Busch (Vienna), Bringing the subject back into multilingualism research: exploring the notions of linguistic repertoire and lived experience of language. Tu. 24/10, Buzek, LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE: MIGRATION OF PEOPLE, CULTURE AND PRESTIGE. General description. Linguistic Landscape is a field of study of sociolinguistics dedicated to the presence of languages in multilingual contexts. Even in an environment that is relatively homogenous from a linguistic point of view, like Czech Republic, we can find presence of other languages in the public space. Traces of foreign languages are not accidental, but they always have a purpose. They point to the presence of migrants; they testify to a cultural influence that minorities offer to the majority; and they reveal the changing waves of prestige and cultural changes in societies through time and space. Teaching methodology. After an introductory lecture on Linguistic Landscape and Urban Sociolinguistics students will carry out fieldwork in groups, paying attention to Linguistic Landscape in Brno or in their hometowns. Teaching materials. A reading list of recommended literature will be provided at the beginning of the course. TU. 31/10 and 7/11, Kyloušek, MIGRATION AND FRENCH IN NORTH AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN. The course introduction will summarize the history of colonization and the creation of three distinct types of areas: the "Europeanized" North and South of the two continents, the slave plantation area between the South of the United States and the North of Brazil, and the area of resistant indigenous cultures in Central and South America. The second part will summarize French colonization in North America and its linguistic implications. The third part will point out the effects of contemporary migration on the linguistic situation (migration literature in Quebec). Texts (poetry, plays) where different positions of identity and language are manifested will be analyzed and discussed. Tu. 21/11, Doležalová, A DOUBLE MIGRATION OF IDENTITY: HISTORY AND LITERATURE. The reality of migration is present in the literature from the biblical times. At the turn of the XXth and XXIst centuries the topic of the 2nd WW and its forced displacements is still alive as is shown by novels written in many languages as English or French and translated into others, like Czech. Through selected texts (The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, Dora Bruder by the Nobel prize winner Patrick Modiano, HHhH by Laurent Binet or The Chosen by Chaim Potok) several questions will be examined: Migration, surname and identity, Identity as burden or benefit, Switching the identity – real, fictional, nonfictional. During the workshop part, the groups of students will work on pre-read texts (made available in the ELF repository) so as to be able to read reality by employing new keys of interpretation (Egle´s formulation). TU. 28/11, Dytrt, MIGRANT LITERATURE OR LITERATURE OF IMMIGRANTS? SOME METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS WITH EXAMPLES FROM CONTEMPORARY FRANCOPHONE LITERATURE. The first part of the lecture will focus on the general features of literary texts written by migrants in Francophone literatures. We will discuss the concept of exile and how this concept becomes one of the most common literary topoi. In the second part of the lecture, we will look at texts by the Hungarian-Swiss author Agota Kristof and the Czech-French author M. Kundera, which will be analysed in the light of the concepts defined above. Tu. 5/12 and Tu. 12/12, Vázquez, GOLDEN DREAM: HOW TO REPRESENT MIGRATION ON FILMS. General description of the topic. In the past two decades and for various reasons, the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua) has been experiencing a massive exodus, with hundreds of thousands crossing the whole length of Mexico to reach the US border. What makes this process specific? What are the struggles migrant people face in their 5000 km long journey? Representing migration on film is always challenging, since the fate of a specific migrant person doesn’t speak for the statistical dimension of the tragedy, but, on the other hand, statistics don’t make a good plot. Director Quemada-Díez manages to deliver a moving story of adolescent migrants while showing the real measure of the phenomenon. Teaching methodology. A face-to-face lecture and open class discussion will prepare the visualization of the film by giving context and critical awareness of the key features of the film. After watching the film as homework, class discussion will analyze the poetics of Golden Dream and the specifics of the Central American migration. Teaching materials. The movie, papers and videos to give contextualization. Tu. 19/12, Closing lesson
Teaching methods
1) Individual lectures providing an overview of the issues addressed. Face-to-face teaching involves the active participation of students through plenary discussion of case studies. 2) Peer-to-peer and/or small group work, in which students will be asked to enter and comment on documents, case studies and problems directly related to the topics covered.
Assessment methods
Final assessment will be based on a concluding colloquium on the main points of the learning process.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2023, recent)
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